Slaughterhouses are literal hellscapes, even for avid meat-eaters. It's easy to forget about the conditions animals live and die in when buying our meat. But, recent footage from the Butterball slaughterhouse has made people face the realities of the process, resulting in a turkey boycott ahead of Thanksgiving.
Videos by Wide Open Country
As Amber Canavan of PETA points out, "Nothing humane had ever happened in a slaughterhouse." The footage released by workers inside the Butterball turkey warehouse sparked an undercover investigation by PETA. What they found was disgusting.
A report on the Ozark, Arkansas location between April and July of 2006 showed the atrocities performed by the staff. Shockingly, violence, sexual assault, and brutal slaughter of the turkeys were witnessed in the Butterball factory. Of course, the place is designed to process the death of 50,000 turkeys a day, but it's supposed to be at least slightly humane.
However, the investigator reports that they saw "One worker took a live bird and stomped on her head, crushing her skull until her head exploded. He then laughed and wiped the blood from his leg. He also threw birds against the concrete and punched others."
Inhumane Treatment Of Butterball Turkeys
I guess it takes a certain type of person to work in a slaughterhouse. Either that or working in a building dedicated to massive amounts of death pulls the humanity from a person. The employees of the Butterball factory have displayed some incredibly foul behavior.
The boycott of the Butterball turkey factory has come with the apparent abuse that goes on. The Instagram video has shocked people as the undercover investigator tells of what they witnessed. It has inspired many to choose to buy their turkeys from other suppliers, with some even planning to return theirs.
One commenter sums up the issues with slaughterhouse regulations. "And everyone who still eats meat still wants to say their meat was humanely killed! LMAO" they say. There is some truth to it too. Despite many companies claiming their meat is humane and free range, the actual conditions are unregulated and inhumane.
A boycott of the Butterball turkey will hopefully hurt them enough to take a look at their slaughterhouse conditions. As the Thanksgiving season approaches, thousands of turkeys will be slaughtered. It's sad to think so many will die in such deplorable conditions.
