Breaking: Three More Defendants Plead Guilty in Plainville Farms Cruelty Cases

For Immediate Release:
August 7, 2023

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

Based on overwhelming evidence gathered during a PETA undercover investigation, three more of the 12 former workers for Plainville Farms who were charged with cruelty to animals—Francisco Lebron-Cruz, Bryiant Perez-Paez, and Bryce Washington—pleaded guilty to the charges this morning in the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas. They join two other former Plainville Farms workers who entered guilty pleas to cruelty charges in June. All five have been sentenced to supervised probation, during which they are prohibited from obtaining any employment that involves the care of animals.

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. Charges against 10 of the men remain pending, including more charges against Lebron-Cruz and Perez-Paez in Franklin County. Broadcast-quality video footage from PETA’s investigation is available here.

“Abusing vulnerable animals comes with consequences, like losing your job, as these former Plainville Farms workers have learned, and other meat companies should be on high alert,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Dan Paden. “While the guilty pleas in this case pile up, PETA is reminding everyone that the best way to help end such cruelty is to take personal responsibility by simply 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 or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.