New Undercover Video and Billboard Take On Company Exposed in PETA Investigation

For Immediate Release:
August 26, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

PETA is running a billboard down the road from New Oxford–based Plainville Farms, the “humane”-certified company whose workers kicked and stomped on turkeys and, as revealed in a new video, were caught on camera tying four birds together by their snoods. The just-released footage also shows one worker sitting on top of a turkey, riding him, and then thrusting his hips at and pretending to rape the animal. The ad’s message is that anyone who continues to eat turkey is supporting such abuse—and the billboard invites viewers to visit PETA.org/Turkeys to see the footage and the truth of the matter for themselves.

“Turkeys feel pain and are caring parents and spirited explorers no one has any right to kick or beat,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “The ‘humane’ label is a scam, but PETA is offering free vegan starter kits to help anyone who doesn’t want to support this hidden abuse.”

PETA’s investigator found that crewmembers deliberately kicked and stomped on turkeys, including those who were sick, injured, and unable to walk. One worker pretended to masturbate with a dying female bird, and two workers threw hens at one another like a game of basketball. Workers made half-hearted attempts to break turkeys’ necks by picking them up by the head and shaking them up and down, repeatedly, before tossing them aside, still alive, or dropping them to the floor, where they convulsed and were left to die in intense pain.

In response, Whole Foods has pulled Plainville Farms products from its shelves and suspended purchases from the company. PETA has submitted evidence to the Pennsylvania State Police, which has opened an investigation; urged Plainville Farms to terminate the abusive workers; and called on Global Animal Partnership to change its certification program by prohibiting labeling designed to deceive customers. The group has also urged Wegmans, Publix, and Harris Teeter to investigate their suppliers and highlight their many vegan options, including vegan turkey slices and roasts.

Broadcast-quality video footage is available here. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s billboard is located at 2750 Carlisle Pike (Route 94) near New Oxford. The ad also ran in Sunday’s York Daily Record and Patriot-News.