Men Who Stomped, Kicked Turkeys Apparently Still on the Clock

You probably remember when we unveiled our undercover investigation of Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., right before Thanksgiving. (Those horrifying images are hard to forget.) After seeing our video footage, Aviagen claimed to be working on improvements to its animal welfare policies and promised to fire all workers who were caught violating them.

However, Aviagen has not, to PETA’s knowledge, implemented any of PETA’s seven recommendations for making its turkeys less miserable. On top of that, we got a call 10 days ago from a whistleblower who let us know that at least three of the workers who were videotaped stomping, kicking, throwing, and maliciously killing turkeys are still being paid to handle live turkeys on Aviagen’s farms. I’d really like to say that I’m shocked, but after seeing what happens on Aviagen’s dark and dusty factory farms, I don’t think there’s anything the company could do that would surprise me.

We’ve pumped a letter out to Aviagen president Jihad Douglas demanding to know why these workers are still on the company’s payroll two months after PETA representatives personally provided company officials with our videotape as well as what, if any, steps the company has taken to stop cruelty to animals on its farms. Aviagen, since you seem to have no brilliant plans of your own to stop the abuse of turkeys on your factory farms, I suggest that you implement our seven-point-plan for animal welfare improvements as soon as possible.

Oh, and one more thing: Fire those workers … now!

Written by Liz Graffeo