Fwd: COK's eNewsletter: New Investigation Exposes Abuse at Turkey Hatchery

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How sad! Boycott China and their products for culling pet and stray dogs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 21, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New COK Investigation Uncovers Cruelty at a North Carolina Turkey Hatchery that Supplies Butterball

 

 

 

An undercover video filmed by a COK investigator while employed at a North Carolina turkey hatchery reveals shockingly

abusive conditions for newly-hatched chicks. The investigator worked at the hatchery for nearly three weeks during June

and July 2006, when it was hatching turkeys to be raised for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner tables. The video

includes scenes of live chicks being:

 

 

suffocated in plastic bags,

tossed around like inanimate objects,

mangled on machinery, and

routinely dumped in the same disposal bin as cracked egg shells.

 

 

Learn more about this investigation and watch the video.

 

 

Below is an article published in today’s Charlotte Observer, North Carolina’s largest newspaper.

 

 

For a compassionate holiday feast, click here for animal-friendly

recipes that everyone, including the turkeys, can be thankful for.

 

 

 

Hatchery Routine Criticized

 

 

 

By Leigh Dyer

 

 

Printed in the Charlotte Observer on Nov. 11, 2006

 

 

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/ business/16064004.htm

 

 

A Washington-based animal-rights group plans a national news release today challenging the practices of a leading N.C.

turkey hatchery as inhumane.

 

 

Compassion Over Killing, a nonprofit animal-protection group, has posted videos on its Web site

(www.cok.net) shot by an investigator who worked at a hatchery owned by Goldsboro Milling

Co. The videos involve turkeys being hatched for this week’s holiday. Since October, the company has been a corporate

affiliate of Butterball LLC, and its turkeys are sold under the Butterball name.

 

 

The employee, who worked at the hatchery for three weeks in June and July, documented newly hatched turkeys suffocating

in plastic bags, being mangled by machinery and being dumped into the same disposal system used for their discarded

eggshells, said the group’s executive director, Erica Meier. “From the very first day of their lives, these

chicks endured unimaginably abusive treatment,” she said.

 

 

Nick Weaver, general manager of Sleepy Creek Farms, which oversees the hatcheries of Goldsboro Milling, said the number

of baby turkeys—called poults—who die by the methods the group documented is minimal.

 

 

“I like to get every single poult that’s viable out of these hatcheries and to a farm,” he said.

“Everything they’re claiming injures my bottom line.”

 

 

Each poult is worth roughly $1.10, Weaver said. He estimated that of the roughly 75,000 poults processed each day

at the company’s hatcheries, about 20 accidentally die or are destroyed because they are not viable.

 

 

Occasionally, some poults are destroyed because they are considered surplus, and suffocation is one method accepted

under industry guidelines, he said.

 

 

Another industry-accepted killing method is to send them through the same pneumatic tubes used to dispose of their

eggshells, where they are instantaneously killed by a high-speed impact, he said. The guidelines were developed in

compliance with both state and federal regulations, he added.

 

 

“To portray it as this horrible, sinister … situation is just not fair, just not accurate,” Weaver said.

 

 

Meier said the videos show that the numbers of destroyed poults are at least in the dozens each day.

 

 

The group’s news release does not allege that any of the hatchery’s practices is illegal.

 

 

They are instead urging that consumers halt the practices by not eating turkey on Thursday. “Each one of us can

give turkeys something to be thankful for this holiday season by simply leaving them off our plates,” Meier said.

 

http://ca.cok.net/cgi-local/dada/mail.cgi?f=n&l=ca&e=d2or3&p=6779599

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this issue…

 

 

1. A New COK Investigation Uncovers Cruelty at a North Carolina Turkey Hatchery that Supplies Butterball

 

 

2. Hatchery Routine Criticized

 

 

About COK

 

 

Compassion Over Killing (COK) is a nonprofit animal advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

 

 

Working to end animal abuse since 1995, COK focuses on cruelty to animals in agriculture and promotes vegetarian eating as a way to build a kinder world for all of us, both human and nonhuman.

 

Visit COK.net to learn more.

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

We truly value the generosity of our supporters who allow us to work as hard as we can for the animals. Please help us help animals.

 

 

 

COK

P.O. Box 9773

Washington, DC 20016

T: 301-891-2458

F: 301-891-6815

info

www.cok.net

 

 

 

 

 

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