Breaking: Two More Defendants Convicted in Plainville Farms Cruelty Cases

For Immediate Release:
November 15, 2023

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Based on overwhelming evidence gathered during a PETA undercover investigation, former Plainville Farms worker Joseph Nunez Rosario pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals yesterday morning in the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas. Rosario joins seven other former Plainville Farms workers—including former supervisor Kevin Lee Wagaman—who entered guilty pleas to cruelty charges in June and August. All eight have been sentenced to supervised probation, during which they are prohibited from obtaining any employment that involves the care of animals. Additionally, on October 12, Christopher Stephen McArdle pleaded no contest to a cruelty-to-animals charge.

Pennsylvania State Police charged 12 former Plainville workers with a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals, the largest number in any factory-farmed animal case in U.S. history. Broadcast-quality video footage from PETA’s investigation is available here.

“Convictions are piling up among former Plainville Farms workers who abused and sexually assaulted vulnerable turkeys, despite company claims that turkeys are ‘humanely raised’ in a ‘stress-free environment,’” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Dan Paden. “‘Humane’ labels do nothing to stop cruelty behind closed doors, and PETA urges everyone who is disturbed by this case to help end such abuse by going vegan.”

PETA’s investigator documented that workers kicked turkeys, including birds who were sick, injured, and unable to walk. After failing to break their necks, they left the birds to convulse and die in agony on the shed floor. Instead of trying to stop the abuse, a supervisor joined in, kicking turkeys and berating the investigator for not doing the same. Workers threw hens at one another as though they were basketballs. One worker pretended to masturbate with a dying bird, and another sat on and pretended to rape a live turkey.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.