Butterball’s House of Horrors: A PETA Undercover Investigation
During an undercover investigation at a Butterball slaughterhouse in Ozark, Arkansas, PETA investigators documented that Butterball workers punched and stomped on live turkeys, slammed them against walls, and worse.
One Butterball employee stomped on a bird’s head until her skull exploded, another swung a turkey against a metal handrail so hard that her backbone popped out, and another was seen inserting his finger into a turkey’s vagina.
One worker told an investigator, “If you jump on their stomachs right, they’ll pop … or their insides will come out of their [rectums],” and other Butterball workers frequently bragged about kicking and tormenting birds. Read more in the investigators’ log notes from the Butterball investigation.
PETA’s investigators discovered these horrors between April and July 2006 during an undercover investigation at a Butterball plant that slaughters approximately 50,000 birds each day.
How Butterball Kills and Abuses Birds
Butterball turkeys are killed using a process that involves hanging live birds by their legs, shocking them in electrified water so that they become paralyzed (though they still feel pain), slitting their throats, and then running them through a tank of scalding-hot water for defeathering.
Because Butterball’s current slaughter method gives workers access to live birds, the animals often suffer when desensitized workers become frustrated or bored, as was the case at this Butterball plant and the other plants that PETA has investigated.
Even though they constitute more than 98 percent of the land animals eaten in the United States, birds are excluded from coverage under the only federal law designed to protect animals during slaughter, the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA).
Animal Welfare Experts Comment on PETA’s Undercover Investigation of Butterball
Academic and professional experts in bird welfare, veterinary medicine, and slaughter systems reviewed the video footage from PETA’s undercover investigation of Butterball. Below are some of their statements:
Temple Grandin, Ph.D., P.A.S.
Dr. Grandin is perhaps the world’s leading expert on farmed-animal welfare. She is a professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University and an animal welfare advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the meat industry. She has designed equipment and systems that are in use in numerous slaughter facilities nationwide. Dr. Grandin states:
· “There was definitely abusive handling [at this plant].”
· “The management of this plant is obviously not training and supervising [its] employees.”
· “This plant has both severe animal welfare problems and a lack of management that needs correcting.”
Donald M. Broom, Ph.D.
Dr. Broom is a world-renowned expert on farmed-animal behavior and welfare. He is a professor of animal welfare in the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. He has served as an animal welfare advisor to governments, including serving as chair of the European Union Scientific Veterinary Committee (Animal Welfare Section). Dr. Broom states:
· “Some of the incidents shown in this video are of workers’ moving turkeys onto or off shackling line[s] very quickly, whilst other sequences show deliberate abuse of turkeys.”
· “Grabbing birds roughly, throwing birds, forcing birds into shackles, and moving birds in such a way that the head or other parts of the body hit equipment, as shown in [the video], are all grounds for prosecution for cruelty ….”
“In [the video], a turkey is swung and hit against equipment so that [his or her] head or body impacts with a force that would be sufficient to cause bone breakage. … [A] worker sits on a turkey, causing [the animal] to struggle and probably breaking bones and damaging internal organs. … [A] worker appears to simulate copulation with a turkey and then forces [his or her] head into a shackle designed for the legs. … Each of the persons involved was causing very poor welfare with pain and distress that was unnecessary.”
Lesley Rogers, Ph.D.
Dr. Rogers founded the Research Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour in the School of Biological, Biomedical, and Molecular Sciences at the University of New England, where she is a professor of neuroscience and animal behavior. She is also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, serves on the Australian Vice Chancellors’ Committee (Animal Research Review Panel), and has served as president of the Australian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Dr. Rogers states:
· “[I]t is clear [from the video] that these birds are being handled inhumanely.”
“The behavior of the workers is unprofessional, violent, and very distressing ….”
“The birds are stressed severely and killed in a way that means they take a long time to die. Added to this, individual birds are bashed and killed in a rough and inefficient way. I was appalled to see what was going on.”
Laurie Siperstein-Cook, D.V.M.
Dr. Siperstein-Cook is an avian veterinarian in Davis, California. She is an expert on bird welfare and has testified before the California legislature on the subject. Dr. Siperstein-Cook states:
· “Workers at this plant are not following standard handling practices as part of their routine work unloading and shackling turkeys. Workers are seen violently throwing birds into shackles, including occasions where the birds miss the shackles entirely and strike the floor. One bird is grabbed by the neck and yanked into the air. This kind of treatment is likely to cause bruising and broken bones and is inconsistent with a basic regard for animal welfare. Either the plant has failed to train these workers in proper handling, or it allows such training to be completely ignored.”
“Repeated incidents of kicking and punching birds and slamming them against objects are clear incidents of cruelty to animals and do not constitute a normal or accepted agricultural practice.”
“The behavior documented at this plant is reprehensible. These individuals and anyone else responsible for allowing this behavior to continue should be prosecuted. They certainly should not be permitted to handle animals.”
“The slaughter plant apparently has created an atmosphere of tolerance for cruelty to animals. Workers openly boast about beating animals and making their eyes pop out. One worker advises the investigator to hit struggling turkeys. The workers shown abusing animals show no reluctance to mistreat animals in plain view of coworkers. A respectable facility would not tolerate a workplace culture of complete lack of regard for animal welfare as this one does. This facility has a serious animal welfare problem.”
Lotta Berg, Ph.D.
Dr. Berg is a veterinary officer at the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency. She participates in expert groups on bird welfare for the European Union and is a member of the Working Group on Poultry Welfare of the European branch of the World’s Poultry Science Association. Dr. Berg states:
· “It is evident that the handling of the turkeys during unloading and shackling seen on the video shots provided by PETA is not in accordance with good practice.”
“Both rough handling in general … and cases of deliberate violence will cause unnecessary suffering in the birds, and it cannot be assumed that this suffering is mild or short-lasting.”
“At a very minimum, these acts of cruelty, negligence, or indifference appear to demonstrate unsatisfactory training and lack of oversight by the slaughter plant management regarding … good animal welfare practice.”
You Can Help Stop This!
The easiest way to help turkeys is by not eating them. Tons of brands sell great vegan ‘turkey’ roasts, and there are lots of ways to make a holiday meal that doesn’t harm any animal.
Not eating animals is the best way to help them so go vegan today! Order a copy of PETA’s free Vegan Starter Kit, which is full of recipes as well as health and shopping information.
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