James Cromwell Says No Forgiveness if No Mercy for Turkeys This Easter in Charleston

For Immediate Release:
April 14, 2022

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

“Oh, for the love of God, we have to draw the line somewhere!” That’s the message Babe and Succession star James Cromwell will deliver, while playing the role of a priest who refuses to absolve the man who invented the term “humane meat,” in a PETA television spot that will air this Easter. The spot follows reports that Harris Teeter and Wegmans still sell turkey corpses from Plainville Farms with “humanely raised” labels affixed to them, even after a PETA exposé revealed that workers kicked, stomped on, and beat birds.

“Any ‘humanely raised’ turkeys on Harris Teeter’s and Wegmans’ shelves could well have been kicked or beaten based on our investigations inside their supplier’s sheds,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “People need to face the fact that the only guaranteed humane meal is a vegan one, and it would be a blessing to celebrate Easter by leaving animals off the table.”

Workers at Plainville Farms were recorded on video kicking and stomping on scores of turkeys, trying and failing to break turkeys’ necks and leaving them to convulse and die in agony, beating turkeys with a heavy rod, throwing them at one another for fun, and miming sex acts with the birds. Following PETA’s exposé, Whole Foods dropped Plainville as a supplier, but the company’s products are still sold at Harris Teeter and Wegmans stores.

PETA’s video will run on WCSC-TV (CBS).

With the abundance of animal-free roasts available, celebrating Easter with kindness has never been easier. PETA’s Christian outreach division, LAMBS—which stands for “least among my brothers and sisters” from Matthew 25:40—offers a guide to celebrating a vegan holiday, and PETA offers a free vegan starter kit.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.