Undercover at a turkey slaughter plant in North Carolina: The Thanksgiving people don't want to see

[donsu]

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2653.shtml


"The alarms rings at 3:45 a.m. I reach for the ibuprofen. Without it my hands are too sore and swollen to even close . . . much less hold a turkey's legs. Wearing a pair of rubber gloves, cotton gloves and taping them doesn't help when you're banging into shackles all day. The flesh is still raw and exposed.

"I dress with the video cam that's become part of my daily outfit carefully hidden and fortify myself with enough food to get through the workday.

"When we arrive at the House of Raeford the trucks full of live turkeys are already waiting to be unloaded; it's not even 5:30 a.m."

So begins the diary of "Sam" -- not his real name -- who worked as an undercover investigator for Mercy For Animals (MFA), a national, not for profit animal advocacy organization, earlier this year while employed as a "live hanger" at House of Raeford's turkey slaughterhouse in Raeford, North Carolina.

-snip-

A "live hanger" culture exists in slaughter plants, says Sam, in which there is no recognition of a turkey or chicken being alive or capable of pain.

As they unloaded trucks, workers routinely threw birds from one tier to another, letting them fall 20 feet, swung them around by their feet, "boxed" them as they hung upside down and held them under truck wheels to be crushed.

Workers pulled heads and legs off turkeys when they were stuck in crates and when they weren't -- just for the hell of it.

Workers even sexually abused the birds -- inserting their fingers into their cloacae (vaginal cavities) and removing eggs they would throw at each other.
-snip-
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I can't post anymore . . .