Butterball Turkey Raid: Factory Farm Hit By County Sheriffs After Undercover Video Reveals Cruelty (VIDEO)

County sheriffs in North Carolina raided a Butterball turkey raising facility this morning to investigate claims of animal cruelty, after the animal rights group Mercy For Animals released a video depicting what they are calling serious animal abuse.

Butterball officials released a statement indicating that the company was complying with the officials and has a strict policy against animal cruelty.

If that's the case, there could be trouble ahead for more than a few employees. The video shows multiple turkey handlers kicking, throwing and dragging birds around the Butterball farm. It also features images of sad-looking turkeys marred by disfiguring, likely painful, ulcers and sores, not to mention missing feathers. It's by no means inconceivable that the location in the video might face the kind of repercussions that egg producer Sparboe Farms felt at the hands of McDonald's and Target after its own history of animal cruelty was revealed.

The timing of the release date seems a little strange. Mercy For Animals might have had a bigger impact if they'd circulated the video in advance of the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey buying seasons. That might have encouraged customers to move away from factory farmed turkeys in favor of pricier -- but often more humanely raised -- heritage turkeys. But better late than never.

Here's the undercover video. A warning: the following depicts animal cruelty, so some images may be disturbing, especially to young viewers.

Comments

[Snarkfest]

12:58 PM on 02/27/2013

Where are the abusers names and addresses in this? I see simple traffic stops in newspapers listing names and addresses of the transgressor.

Who are these guys? People have a right to know so they can watch out for them- animal abusers frequently turn to human beings and all mass killers recorded in history started out as animal abusers.

Would you want your child anywhere near these guys houses?

[gr5ubtn]

07:03 AM on 02/26/2013

Boycott

[Paully Tiklencorrect]

04:31 AM on 08/30/2012

I found this hard to watch and I hunt these things in the wild. I will never buy from Butterball again.

[keligrl36]

11:44 PM on 03/14/2012

I understand that these birds are raised to feed us but there is a more humane way to treat and slaughter them. This is sickening, and if anyone thinks its not then there is something seriously wrong with their heads. Only a person without a heart would think this is OK...its not OK its disgusting and sickening and with all the cruelty I have seen over the last few months investigating on a research paper I am writing I see vegitarianism in the near future for me..I do not support this type of behavior and will not allow my hard earned money to suport such companies. Industrialized farming has gone completetly mad by money driven heartless people.

[Yeb Beirta]

05:14 PM on 02/18/2012

I will never eat from Butterball again. Completely boycotting the company as is my family, and many friends. Americans care about the humane treatment of our animals, it's one of the attributes that makes our country special and I will never support a company that hires mentally deranged people to abuse the animals in their property. No more Butterball.

[jcolvin325]

05:09 PM on 01/03/2012

They are birds...that are produced to be killed, cooked, and eaten. I don't much care how they 'feel' on the way to my plate. I kill wild turkeys also...Butterballs taste better IMO.

[Jay from Ottawa]

04:11 PM on 02/16/2012

You clearly have never eaten real tasty meat (as in the meat itself tastes delicious, not the spices they throw on it). Happy animals that aren't slaughtered the second they reach slaughter weight are considerably tastier and jucier.

Visit a farm and buy a 10 week old (most chickens are slaughtered at six weeks) heritage chicken (or turkey) and you'll taste the difference. So much so you'll likely cut back on the spices and seasonings :)

It sounds stupid, but the happier the bird was, the tastier it'll be.

[Snarkfest]

01:11 PM on 02/27/2013

I note you have Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV) as your signature. Do you really Believe or are you just cherry picking?

How about:
Proverbs 12:10 ESV
Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

Ecclesiastes 3:19 ESV
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.

Proverbs 27:23 ESV
Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.

So you have shown in your remark that you have no mercy.
You don't want to know the condition of your flock.
And you are vain enough to think you are above these animals.

All in opposition to the Bible you wear on your sleeve.

[Fnordpocalypse]

02:26 PM on 01/03/2012

If the FBI gets its way, anyone exposing the manner in which food is produced will be considered a terrorist.

[sophie M]

01:55 PM on 01/03/2012

how could anyone work there?
live with themselves?

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

01:54 PM on 01/03/2012

The right wing answer to this problem is to make undercover filming illegal; making whistleblowers prosecutable despite other laws intended to protect them.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2077514,00.html

[Welease Wodewick]

03:16 PM on 01/03/2012

And - blame the turkeys, for allowing themselves to be filmed

VP

[lotusgirl]

09:09 AM on 01/03/2012

This is one (but not the only) reason I am vegetarian.

I respect meat eaters, but please eat responsibly. Even if you don't care about animals, you don't want to eat something that was raised in fear and disease. It's not good for you.

What kind of person treats any living creature with such cruelty?

[Welease Wodewick]

03:37 PM on 01/03/2012

R. Soles.

Unfortunately - there are lots of them around.

F&F.

VP

[lotusgirl]

04:15 PM on 01/03/2012

You are right! Back at ya!

[daigz]

11:39 PM on 01/03/2012

I find just as disturbing the staggering number of people who, with awareness of these conditions, still cannot be bothered to obtain their meat from more humane sources. This keeps happening because people simply don't care.. and I'll bet they'd care if they'd have had a pet chicken/turkey at some point in their lives.

[SharonDoc]

10:57 PM on 01/02/2012

So compassionate they relocate the turkey to a commune after solitary confinement before its demise.

[jones]

09:10 AM on 01/02/2012

Buy local and support your area farmer. Taste is sooooo much better too.

[jones]

09:10 AM on 01/02/2012

Ooops... I mean the produce & meat....not the farmer... :)

[lotusgirl]

09:09 AM on 01/03/2012

LOL!

[onionboy]

03:09 PM on 01/03/2012

You really should have mentioned that before I shot and cooked two farmers down the road.

[pixeloid]

02:06 AM on 01/02/2012

Another factory farm found to be brutally cruel to animals. The only surprise is that police did something about it. They'll fire a couple of minimum wage workers and be back to business as usual in a few days.

[Marlon Browne]

12:48 AM on 01/02/2012

Its freaking Turkey. If I am upset about anything, its the way my meat might be polluted by the care of the animals. Kill em anyway you can to get the meat. I don't eat humans. Can't say humans should be treated like that. Ridiculous. Its food. They have to die. If they were breeding them just to kill em for sport i would boycott. But keep your stupid "Go Vegan" propaganda. I love my meat. Dead preferably.

[RedDog79]

12:32 PM on 01/03/2012

I bet you vote republican.

[Welease Wodewick]

03:23 PM on 01/03/2012

'Meat' that has been raised humanely, is much better for the human body.

Think about it - how could meat, from an animal - that has been subjected to fear, abuse, cruelty, intense pain, deprivation of natural habitat and behaviour - be a good thing to put into your own body.

Love your meat - that's fine - just don't allow it to be tortured, before you put it into your mouth.

VP

[CountingCoup]

12:14 PM on 12/31/2011

ButterBall can suck it!