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For immediate release:
12 April 2021
Contact:
Moira Collie 202-483-7382
Duplin County, North Carolina – Armed with condemning USDA reports that two House of Raeford slaughterhouses in Duplin County were charged with seven federal violations in less than two months, including after numerous chickens were scalded to death and / or drowned – PETA sent a letter this morning to J. Norman Acker III, Acting Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, USA, asking him to review the matter and, if necessary, initiate criminal proceedings against the company and responsible employees.
Reports, which PETA just received at the request of the Freedom of Information Act, noted that a federal agent saw a live chicken scalded to death and / or drowned after a worker who cut the birds’ throats “dozed off”. Other incidents include those in which a worker “struggled to keep up with the removal” of burnt and / or drowned birds, a live chick was bombarded with dead birds in a bin, and federal personnel had to intervene within four days. so that conscious chicks do not submerge themselves in a tank of boiling water.
“These reports show that live birds descended from House of Raeford’s high-speed slaughter lines directly into boiling water,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphne Nachminovich. “PETA is calling for a criminal investigation and calling on anyone concerned about the excruciating death of these chickens to help prevent animals from being sent to slaughterhouses, in the first place by going vegan.”
PETA, whose motto is in part that “the animals are not ours to eat” – opposes arrogance, a worldview focused on human superiority. For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…
This is followed by a letter from PETA to Acker.
12 April 2021
The Honorable G. Norman Acker III
Acting U.S. Attorney
Eastern District of North Carolina
Dear Mr. Acker:
I am requesting your office to investigate and bring appropriate criminal charges against the House of Raeford Farms and employees responsible for at least seven violations of the Poultry Inspection Act between January 30 and March 24, 2020 at its poultry farms located at : 253 Butterball Rd. and 3333 US Hwy. 117 S. in Duplin County. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has documented the incidents in the attached reports, which PETA has just received upon request from open sources.
At Butterball Road, a federal agent saw a live chicken whose eyes were open and which appeared to be hanging upside down by its shackled legs while trying to get up as it moved to a hot water tank. The agent pointed to the bird and called out to the Raford House worker responsible for cutting the animals’ throats before they were brought to the scalding tank – who was reportedly “squatting against the wall and dozing.” Therefore, the bird was drowned and / or burned. On another day, FSIS officials saw a worker “struggling to keep up with removing” burnt and / or drowned birds as the slaughterhouse attempted to kill 175 birds per minute on one of its lines. A federal inspector also found a weak but alert live chicken covered in dead birds in the bin. On a section of Highway 117 over four separate days, FSIS agents found live chickens – some apparently fully conscious and “looking around” – on a line directly in front of a hot water tank.
21 United States Code § 461 (a) penalizes imprisonment for up to one year and / or a fine of up to $ 1,000 for such behavior. The abuse of live chickens in these slaughterhouses shows that enforcement by FSIS is not enough to prevent future violations and that it is in the interest of both the animals killed there and the public to prosecute.
Please let me know if I can help your office. Thank you for your attention and for the hard work you are doing.
Sincerely,
Daniel Paden
Vice President of Evidence Analysis
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