Harris Teeter Urged to Condemn Sexual Abuse of Turkeys From Decertified Company

For Immediate Release:
September 1, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

A recently released PETA undercover investigation that includes video footage showing workers at Plainville Farms sexually abusing turkeys has brought no reaction from Harris Teeter, which continues to sell Plainfield turkey products bearing a “humanely raised” label—even though the company’s humane certification has been suspended.

The Pennsylvania State Police is investigating Plainville employees caught on video pretending to masturbate with a dying female bird, sitting on and mimicking the rape of a male bird, and abusing birds in other ways. Workers were also filmed kicking and stomping on lame turkeys, tying birds together by their snoods, throwing hens like basketballs, and trying and failing to break turkeys’ necks then tossing them aside to convulse and die in pain.

“Plainville workers treated these panicked birds like sex toys, causing them pain and suffering for their personal amusement,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is asking Harris Teeter why it’s still selling birds from farms where these horrifying acts were recorded.”

Whole Foods has already pulled Plainville Farms products from its shelves and suspended purchases from the company. Plainville has terminated the workers involved and has said that it will start monitoring all operations using body cameras, something PETA calls a meaningless act unless the footage is livestreamed so that a crowd-sourced public can review it and call out any continued acts of cruelty.

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.