Undercover at a turkey slaughter plant in North Carolina: The Thanksgiving people don't want to see

[donsu]

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2653.shtml


"The alarms rings at 3:45 a.m. I reach for the ibuprofen. Without it my hands are too sore and swollen to even close . . . much less hold a turkey's legs. Wearing a pair of rubber gloves, cotton gloves and taping them doesn't help when you're banging into shackles all day. The flesh is still raw and exposed.

"I dress with the video cam that's become part of my daily outfit carefully hidden and fortify myself with enough food to get through the workday.

"When we arrive at the House of Raeford the trucks full of live turkeys are already waiting to be unloaded; it's not even 5:30 a.m."

So begins the diary of "Sam" -- not his real name -- who worked as an undercover investigator for Mercy For Animals (MFA), a national, not for profit animal advocacy organization, earlier this year while employed as a "live hanger" at House of Raeford's turkey slaughterhouse in Raeford, North Carolina.

-snip-

A "live hanger" culture exists in slaughter plants, says Sam, in which there is no recognition of a turkey or chicken being alive or capable of pain.

As they unloaded trucks, workers routinely threw birds from one tier to another, letting them fall 20 feet, swung them around by their feet, "boxed" them as they hung upside down and held them under truck wheels to be crushed.

Workers pulled heads and legs off turkeys when they were stuck in crates and when they weren't -- just for the hell of it.

Workers even sexually abused the birds -- inserting their fingers into their cloacae (vaginal cavities) and removing eggs they would throw at each other.
-snip-
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I can't post anymore . . .

[Annces]

1. The Humane Society is trying to get turkeys and chickens

added to Humane Slaughter Act.

"A broad coalition of humane organizations, slaughterhouse workers' advocacy groups, and individual consumers led by The Humane Society of the United States filed the case in 2005. It argues that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's policy of excluding chickens, turkeys, and other birds killed for human consumption from the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) is irrational and contrary to the agency's duty to protect farm animals from egregious abuse in commercial slaughter facilities."



http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/poultry_slaughter_11192007.html

[donsu]

2. america, a country that tortures in more ways then one

nt

[sharp_stick]

3. Factory "farms" are disgusting

I can't believe people can actually work in one of those places. I have no problem eating meat and luckily I can afford to buy from local suppliers that treat their animals well.

People have no idea where there food comes from and really they don't want to know. My wife knows that beef is cattle but she really doesn't want to think of how it goes from being on the hoof to wrapped in plastic. I think if people really knew what happens and were forced to think about it places like the House of Raeford would cease to exist and so would most of the other mass slaughter facilities and feedlots.

[KamaAina]

4. Maybe the recruiters need to stop by there

Workers pulled heads and legs off turkeys when they were stuck in crates and when they weren't -- just for the hell of it.

Workers even sexually abused the birds -- inserting their fingers into their cloacae (vaginal cavities) and removing eggs they would throw at each other.

Welcome to Abu Ghraib, N.C. :banghead:

[Romulox]

5. Turning our meatpacking industry into an "anything goes" zone is bound to have its downside...nt

[DemGa]

6. Feeling good about that Tofurkey....

[Bonobo]

7. Gorillas, Orangs, Chimps and Bonobos are omnivores. You think humans are so special?

Somebody gotta get the meat.

[BoneDaddy]

8. This type of farming needs to be stopped

and these individuals prosecuted for animal cruelty.

[BoneDaddy]

9. This type of farming needs to be stopped

and these individuals prosecuted for animal cruelty.

[Critters2]

10. No way in hell any law makers are going to take on the meat industry.

If you eat meat, you support this. Period.

[BoneDaddy]

14. That is a bit far

I eat meat but buy it organically and from butchers that do not practive factory farming.

[Quantess]

11. The treatment of meat animals has definitely gotten worse over the years.

Consumers are removed from the process, so they don't even think about how the meat got to their dinner table. If more consumers knew how the animals had to suffer, there would be a shift toward more humane treatment in the meat factories.

I eat meat, but I would feel better about it if I thought the animals had a tolerable life.

Turkeys can be sweet and gentle birds. I had a pet hen turkey who was tame and enjoyed being petted and hand fed. She was a Big-Breasted-Bronze turkey, which are bred for meat, because of their huge, over-meaty bodies. Her little legs had trouble supporting her huge body. One day she wandered (waddled) off a little too far from the house and was killed by a predator. Still, for a turkey, she lived an extremely charmed life. She'd be the Paris Hilton of domestic turkeys.

[appal_jack]

12. other ways are possible, and indeed, necessary

Interestingly enough, I happened to be at a slaughterhouse yesterday myself, helping a neighbor-farmer transport her turkeys. Fortunately, my experience is rather different than the factory-farm model described in the OP. We were at was one of the few remaining independent (i.e.- not affiliated with Tyson, Smithfield, etc.) small animal "processors" (I know that some will wince at this euphemism) in the southeast. Here is some of what I observed:

The crew: The couple that owns this facility were not only on-site, but were actively working the line along side their workers. The pace was fairly relaxed, and no one showed any signs of injury or chronic stress. The crew was diverse as far as race and gender.

The farmers: As I said above, this particular facility slaughters & packs poultry from independent small farms. While waiting in line, I saw a variety of growers arrive: young & older, some driving fancy diesel dually trucks, but more driving station wagons, banged-up Toyotas, and other older trucks. All of the farmers took pride in the birds they had raised, and no one exhibited cruelty toward the birds (of course, some here will say that killing for meat is itself cruelty, but that is a debate for ANOTHER thread, OK?)

The birds: I saw some gorgeous heritage breeds of turkeys yesterday: Bourbon Reds, Narragansetts, Slate Blues, and others whose names I have already forgotten. The independent growers raising these birds are keeping whole breeds viable through their work that would otherwise be lost. As with all USDA-certified processing plants, there was a USDA inspector on-site, and she said (without any prompting from me) that these were the healthiest turkeys she had seen in her entire career (she usually worked the larger corporate plants, but was filling-in for a colleague yesterday). The turkeys did not exhibit any signs of stress that I could observe as they awaited unloading/slaughter, so I am guessing that they really do lack the mental faculties necessary to perceive imminent doom. This is a useful trait for a domesticated animal.

This experience has reinforced my belief that a humane animal agricultural system is not only possible, but necessary. We need small, independent farmers to steward our private lands sustainably. THEY (the farmers) need animals to manage steeper lands (unsuitable for row-crops or tillage) and for the manures that are necessary for sustainable soil-building. Shumacher was right: small is beautiful, especially when it comes to farming.

-app

Edited for typos.

[appal_jack]

13. another aspect of the "Omnivore's Dilemma"

In The_Omnivores_Dilemma, Michael Pollan notes that many ancient societies used priests to slaughter their animals, and rotated the job between priests so that none would become casual about taking a life, nor would they begin practicing excessive cruelty when doing so. Since I rather doubt that priests would offer to work a slaughter line once per month these days, what would a modern system look like that effectively eliminates the desensitization that daily slaughter otherwise engenders?

In the case of the small, independent plant I described above, the slaughter line is only operating once per week these days, so everyone there has other (non-slaughtering) jobs the rest of the week. But this systeem is hardly economically sustainable for either the plant or the workers, so other thoughts are welcome.

-app

oh, and k&r.