Why No Arrests Yet? PETA Pushes Police for Action in Turkey Abuse Case
For Immediate Release:
April 4, 2022
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Through a sky-high message that just went up near the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) headquarters, PETA is calling the agency out for failing to file charges against the workers caught on video kicking, stomping on, beating, and otherwise abusing turkeys on farms affiliated with Plainville Farms, a New Oxford turkey supplier to Wegmans, Publix, Harris Teeter, and other top grocers. PETA shared the findings of its undercover investigation with PSP eight months ago—but the agency has yet to charge the abusers despite overwhelming evidence.
“Plainville Farms employees were caught on camera mock-raping and stomping on turkeys, throwing hens at each other like basketballs, and leaving battered birds to convulse in agony,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling on the Pennsylvania State Police to finally hold these abusers accountable and is appealing to everyone who’s against cruelty to animals to prevent more abuse by eating vegan.”
Prior to PETA’s investigation, Plainville was certified “humane” by Global Animal Partnership (GAP) and claimed to consumers that the turkeys were “free from harm”—which PETA’s investigation showed to be false. After the investigation, GAP suspended Plainville’s certification, Whole Foods pulled its turkey products, and Plainville terminated 13 of its workers.
PSP recently failed to pursue another well-documented case of cruelty to farmed animals. In March 2020, the agency announced that no charges would be filed following PETA’s investigation into Reitz Dairy Farm, where a worker struck a cow nearly 60 times with a cane and other cows were denied care for massively swollen joints seeping blood and pus.
PETA’s billboard is located at the intersection of N. Seventh and Forster streets in Harrisburg.
Broadcast-quality video footage from PETA’s investigation is available here. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
