If you’ve ever shopped at Whole Foods, you may have seen signs posted in the meat section with words like “improved environment” and “humane treatment.” But what the PETA investigator documented in a number of Pennsylvania turkey farms affiliated with a Whole Foods supplier indicates that these signs are likely to cost less than the recycled paper they are printed on.
In 2021, a PETA investigator worked for Plainville Farms, a company from New Oxford, Pennsylvania that claims to produce a “humane” turkey in a “stress-free environment.”
The individual farms that supply Plainville farms are certified for both “basic” and “Step 2” activities according to 5-StepTM Global Livestock Partnership (GAP) standards. As a result, Plainville is expected to meet higher welfare standards than most other industrial farms.
You will be the judge.
Kicked, tossed and beat up the ‘Happy Meat’ supplier
A PETA investigator watched crews of turkey poultry catching thousands of turkeys throughout the night in dusty, overcrowded barns and throw them into metal chicken coops on the trucks that take them to the slaughterhouse.
Every night on every farm the teams worked on, the PETA investigator repeatedly saw catchers and kick and stomp viciously on dozens of turkeys, many of which are sick, injured, weak, or just limp to get up.
One brigade position is even called a “kick” when a worker expected kick the turkeys that pass this point!
Workers grab the turkeys, each weighing over 40 pounds, by the neck or one fragile wing, pick them up and drop them. They are toss birds at each other and at other turkeys like a game… One held the trash bag open, like a basketball hoop, to throw a bird.
The men beat and beat the turkeys. One man hit them with a heavy metal rod.
Simulated masturbation with injured chicken
Workers try to break the birds’ necks by lifting them by their heads and shaking them up and down repeatedly before finally tossing them aside. The turkeys convulse and are left to die in agony. Workers even do this with turkeys that don’t look sick or injured, obviously for fun.
The worker lifted one of these birds and placed it between his legs. Holding her by her injured neck, he faked masturbation, then threw her to the floor, kicked her and left her for dead. She lay in agony next to another chicken, tossed aside like trash.
A few nights later, the same worker placed another chicken between his legs and pushed his pelvis back and forth.
“Kill it!”
The turkeys, who survived all the bullying, are forced to sit on the conveyor and on trucks with open sides crash into heavily overcrowded metal pens.
If the turkeys are fighting, the workers smash them against the chicken coops and shout: “Matalo!” (“Kill It!” In Spanish)…
Get a new job if you don’t want to kick turkeys
The crew commanders do nothing to stop the abuse. One of them – who kicked the turkeys himself – repeatedly urged workers to kick and throw the birds.
He and other workers scolded the PETA investigator for not kicking the birds, but instead picking them up and grazing them calmly, even saying that he should find a new job as he would not be doing the “right” cruelty to animals.
Dead and Dying Turkeys Everywhere – After Much Suffering
Dead and dying turkeys can be seen every night on every farm. They receive no treatment for illness or injury, but are instead left to die slowly and in pain.
These animals are already overcrowded, stressed, scared and weakened from carrying extra weight with them as a result of selective breeding for rapid weight gain. No matter how they are loaded for slaughter – where the treatment is certainly terrible – they suffer simply because they are bred for their flesh…
The turkeys need your help to stop this!
Don’t be fooled by marketing claims that animals are raised in a “stress-free” environment and transported “in comfort”.
Neither the police nor any company can stop this suffering. Only you can stop it without paying for it. Avoid all animal products, even the so-called “humane”, “organic” and “free range” meat, eggs and milk. When it comes to profit, animal welfare always takes a back seat.
Call on Whole Foods and the GAP to stop deceiving consumers with false claims of “humane meat”.
If you think you have what it takes to conduct covert investigations like this, we want to hear from you… Click on here share gratitude with the investigator who exposed this cruelty.