Abuse at Butterball Turkey Factory Farm

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Mercy for Animals (MFA) is well known for its undercover investigations of animal abuse and cruelty at factory farms. For three weeks between November and December 2011, an undercover investigator filmed egregious acts of cruelty and abuse of turkeys at a Butterball semen collection farm in Shannon, North Carolina.

Domestic turkeys bred for human consumption are genetically engineered to grow so large and so fast they cannot reproduce normally; hence, the semen farms. This biological manipulation also results in bone and joint deformities as well as fatal heart attacks.

Wild turkeys are agile; they can fly and partake in normal turkey behaviors like frolicking, leg stretching and dust-bathing. Butterball turkeys can’t — even if they were allotted the space to do so.

“Turkeys are fully capable of feeling pain, fear, stress and of suffering, and the way they are treated in the video is clearly abusive,” said Dr. Sara Shields, research scientist, poultry specialist and consultant in animal welfare. Care2 blogger Mac McDaniel wrote about a study that found chickens can feel empathy. Surely, that finding can be extrapolated to turkeys.

The Raid

MFA filed a formal complaint with Hoke County District Attorney against Butterball resulting in a warrant and raid that occurred on Thursday, December 29 at the Butterball facility in Shannon. The complaint cited North Carolina law allowing animal abuse to be prosecuted as a felony.

“The [North Carolina] anti-cruelty statute provides that if any person shall maliciously kill, or cause or procure to be killed, any animal by intentional deprivation of necessary sustenance, that person shall be guilty of a Class H felony. If any person shall maliciously torture, mutilate, maim, cruelly beat, disfigure, poison, or kill, or cause or procure to be tortured, mutilated, maimed, cruelly beaten, disfigured, poisoned, or killed, any animal, every such offender shall for every such offense be guilty of a Class H felony.”

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Photos of Butterball Factory Farm by Mercy for Animals

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Waltraud U.

4:35AM PDT on May 14, 2012

All of these abusers will find their masters - once they will know.
TY

send a green star

Barbara M.

3:06PM PDT on May 10, 2012

No animal should have to live like this..its inhumane treatment, they should be able to be free range..not in cages.

Erica B.

8:12AM PDT on May 10, 2012

With so many unwanted animals there is no excuse for further unnecessary births. It is also imperitive that there is a stop to the inter-breeding of pedigree animals that causes weakness and deformity.

Muriel S.

6:19AM PDT on May 10, 2012

HOooorible. Where will cruelty end???

m S.

6:23PM PDT on May 9, 2012

PROSECUTE those evil people and make the laws stronger to protect the turkeys BOYCOTT BUTTERBALL AND TYSON + there are several more abusive farms..

federico b.

3:39AM PDT on Apr 27, 2012

Questa è gente malata da prendere a calci in culo.

Cindy R.

1:00PM PST on Feb 28, 2012

I will never purchase another ButterBall Turkey....EVER!! This place needs to be shut down and the turkeys allowed to go free.......FREE RANGE (that is) Also, The OWNERS and WORKERS NEED TO BE PROSECUTED!!!!! Thank you so much for bringing this Horrible, Inhumane situation to our attention.

Susan G.

6:00AM PST on Feb 28, 2012

Well reported Megan and packed with specific info and links. Another win thanks this time to the wonderful undercover people from Mercy for Animals.

I would like to poimt out 2 things:

Firstly, my greatest heroes are the undercover investigators that go into battery farms, puppy breeding mills, animal testing companies and slaughterhouses etc etc. These people risk their personal, financial and professional well being for the sake of the animals and at great cost to their emotions: often having to quietly (for the better good) witness horific cruelty which must haunt them forever. We must urgently and continuously focus on protecting these people's right to do so because it is the information that these people gather that arms the rest of us with evidence to argue a case.

Secondly, any win on the front of animal farming will help, by legal precendent, gain the next win.

jackie w.

5:09PM PST on Feb 17, 2012

Thanks for your comments Rooibos B and Jane B. Also, Karen F's comment reminds me of Manu's Law (Hinduism). "According to Manu-samhita, when an animal is killed, 8 persons become condemned with murdering charges".
Some of the 8 factors/implications are : one who kills, one who orders, one who purchases, one who cooks, one who eats. Question of supply and demand.

Ginette C.

12:54PM PST on Feb 17, 2012

These people are frustrated bastards that cannot or will not do anything to help themselves, so they take it out on everything and everyone also I'M sure