Breaking: 10th Conviction in Plainville Farms Criminal Cruelty Cases

For Immediate Release:
July 31, 2024

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Based on overwhelming evidence gathered during a PETA undercover investigation, former Plainville Farms worker Jason Kyle Turner pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals yesterday in the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas. Turner joins eight other former Plainville Farms workers—including former supervisor Kevin Lee Wagaman—who entered guilty pleas to cruelty charges between June and November 2023. All nine have been sentenced to probation, during which they are prohibited from obtaining any employment that involves the care of animals. Additionally, in October 2023, Christopher Stephen McArdle pleaded no contest to a cruelty-to-animals charge.

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

“The pain and suffering inflicted on the vulnerable birds at Plainville Farms’ suppliers never can be undone, but these convictions send a strong message to other meat companies that there are consequences for abuse,” says PETA Vice President of Legal Advocacy Daniel Paden. “PETA encourages anyone disturbed by this case to avoid being complicit in such cruelty 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”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.