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Please don't buy Butterball (warning: this is disturbing) — Brooklynian

Please don't buy Butterball (warning: this is disturbing)

findcate
findcate
edited November -1 in The Lounge / Random Stuff

Subject: Please don't buy Butterball (warning: this is disturbing)

This is disturbing information--but please read it if you might buy a butterball turkey for thanksgiving...it's unpleasant to read about but if people don't learn about what goes on nothing will change...

In undercover video investigations, Butterball workers were documented punching and stomping on live turkeys, slamming them against walls, and worse during an undercover investigation at a Butterball slaughterhouse in Ozark, Arkansas.

One Butterball employee stomped on a bird's head until her skull exploded, another swung a turkey against a metal handrail so hard that her spine popped out, and another was seen inserting his finger into a turkey's cloaca (vagina).

One worker told an investigator: "If you jump on their stomachs right, they'll pop ... or their insides will come out of their [rectums]," and other Butterball workers frequently bragged about kicking and tormenting birds. Read more in the investigators' log notes.

PETA's investigators discovered these horrors between April and July, 2006, during an undercover investigation at a Butterball plant that slaughters approximately 50,000 birds each day.

Why Does This Abuse Happen?
Butterball turkeys are killed using a process that involves hanging live birds by their legs, shocking them in an electrified bath of water so that they become paralyzed (though they still feel pain), slitting their throats, and then running them through a tank of scalding-hot water for defeathering.

Because Butterball's current slaughter method gives workers access to live birds, the animals often suffer when workers become frustrated or bored and desensitized, as was the case at this Butterball plant and the other poultry plants that PETA has investigated.

Even though they constitute more than 98 percent of the land animals eaten in the United States, birds are excluded from coverage under the only federal law designed to protect animals during slaughter, the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA).

http://www.goveg.com/feat/butterball/butterball.asp

Comments

  • drano
    drano
    Findcate, I don't buy their stuff anyway, but you must know that if your primary evidence is a website by somebody with an axe to grind people are going to ask for something more. I'm presuming these investigators were employed by PETA...?

    That being said, my gut says, "Yeah, it probably happened. I hate people."
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    Kosher turkeys taste better anyway.
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    Carnivore wrote: Kosher turkeys taste better anyway.
    And if anyone knows someone who can get them into the food coop, you can usually pick one up (or an organic free-range dolphin-friendly carbon-neutral pro-choice affirmative-action one or whatever) for like cents per pound the day after thanksgiving.
  • findcate
    findcate
    I don't get why people bash peta. yes, they have an ax to grind--because the treatment of animals in this country is shameful & horrific, and our government does nothing to stop agribusiness from constantly violating humane standards and from putting workers and consumers at risk...they have even used terrorism as an excuse to try to stop animal activists--calling them 'agriterorrists'. agribusiness is totally desensitized, they have no empathy whatsoever...whereas peta is willing to deal with the situation and stand up for animals that can't protect themselves.
  • shishkab
    shishkab
    findcate wrote: I don't get why people bash peta.
    well, i guess my biggest problem with PETA is their recent hypocritical nature. for instance, until they were actually caught red-handed by the authorities and subsequently thrown into the media spotlight in 2005 for "rescuing" dogs & cats from shelters (but actually euthanizing and dumping them instead), PETA continually slammed the practice. also, they are not particular supporters of TNR (trap neuter release) programs for feral cat populations, when in reality sometimes TNR is the only humane treatment of these half-wild animals anyway. in 1999 they took lab rabbits out of a facility to "save" them, then killed them, claiming they didn't have the money to care for them (their operating budget that year was in the millions of dollars). Ingrid Newkirk is a passionate woman, yes, but she has also been called maniacal, cruel, and dictator-like by her own peers. PETA has become a cult (if you don't follow all of Ms. Newkirk's edicts, you are summarily banished); I disavow cults. they were once an important forerunner in animal welfare -- now they are fanatical extremists.

    as a sidenote specifically to findcate (and nayone else who may be interested): want to back a non-profit organization that seems like it may uphold many of the standards you mentioned in your post (i say "seems like" because i don't actually know you and don't wish to suppose or impose)? why don't you check out AWI (Animal Welfare Institute) when you get the chance? i personally think they are the real deal:

    http://www.awionline.org/aims.htm
  • drano
    drano
    I really didn't say anything much about PETA.

    Look at it this way: If I came on here saying I had information that the U.N. was a nefarious organization and a communist front that was plotting to destroy the sovereignty of the United States and I cited and linked to a John Birch Society-sponsered website, would that not color your view of my statement?
    until they were actually caught red-handed by the authorities and subsequently thrown into the media spotlight in 2005 for "rescuing" dogs & cats from shelters (but actually euthanizing and dumping them instead)
    I forgot about that. Eh, most organizations eventually become primarily about perpetuating themselves - they become depenedent on the very problems they seek to solve.
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    Drano wrote: I really didn't say anything much about PETA.

    Look at it this way: If I came on here saying I had information that the U.N. was a nefarious organization and a communist front that was plotting to destroy the sovereignty of the United States and I cited and linked to a John Birch Society-sponsered website, might that not color your view of my statement?
    If you start questioning where people making unsubstantiated claims are coming from, you let the terrorists win. [-X
  • findcate
    findcate
    drano, i know you didn't say much, I was just agreeing that peta does have an axe to grind because the FDA is a complete joke as far as enforcing humane standards for treatment of animals. The treatment of animals in this country is horrible, it's disgusting. Why do we have crated veal? People eat uncrated veal in europe. It's not 'white' meat but it's the same otherwise. I've seen videos of baby calves whose legs literally crumple under them while they are being sent to slaughter, struggling to walk and falling down with grown men beating them with sticks to prod them on... Most people who would be compassonate just tune it out because it's overwhelming. butterball is not the UN.

    I believe peta does more good than harm. They fight animal abuse on so many fronts--agriculture, fur, experimentation, curcuses, rodeos. I am not that interested in ingrid newkirk's personal style. She lives & breathes animal abuse, I imagine that it takes a toll, but she is one of the few americans who actually is doing something to make our culture more humane--fighting the status quo that all other life forms are here for our abuse & disposal. imo, the truth is that we are blessed with higher reasoning which carries a responsibility to show compassion for animals. shishkab, i googled and found allegations about what you said and the allegations were filed by The Center for Consumer Freedom, which represents the food industry, which peta has targeted. But I will check out AWI, I would probably be interested to support them as well.

    doctorj, that's funny--lawyers for agribusiness are trying to pass laws so that animal rights activists who try to document abuses in slaughterhouses can be prosecuted as 'agriterrorists'.
    ----

    At the urging of enormously powerful animal-abusing interests—including the meat, fur, circus, and vivisection industries—a small group of politicians have introduced a bill called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. This bill would allow the government to charge animal rights activists with massive fines and jail time for using nonviolent animal protection tactics such as civil disobedience, whistle-blowing, and undercover investigations of animal abuse.

    According to the language of the bill, causing any business classified as an "animal enterprise"—such as animal factories, fur farms, puppy mills, vivisection laboratories, rodeos, and circuses—to suffer a profit loss could become a crime punishable by a lengthy prison sentence, even if the company's financial decline is caused by peaceful protests, consumer boycotts, or media campaigns. No other industrial sector in U.S. history has ever been given such legal protections against people's exercising of their First Amendment free-speech rights. This bill is an attempt by corporations to manipulate people's fear of terrorism in an effort to stop the peaceful animal protection movement.

    This law would likely be deemed unconstitutional by a court, but it should never get that far. Please tell your federal representative and senators that wealthy, animal-abusing corporations should not be allowed to intimidate Americans from investigating and exposing cruelty to animals.

    Please call or write to your representative and ask him or her to oppose H.R. 4239. Then contact your senators and ask them to oppose S.3880. (The bill is called the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in both the House and the Senate.) To find your representative's and senators' contact information, visit Congress.org.
    ---
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    findcate wrote: drano, i know you didn't say much, I was just agreeing that peta does have an axe to grind because the FDA is a complete joke as far as enforcing humane standards for treatment of animals. The treatment of animals in this country is horrible, it's disgusting.
    If the day comes when this country enforces humane standards for treatment of people, I might start to care more about the treatment of animals (notwithstanding the fact that my day job involves technological advances that will hopefully reduce the need for animal testing).
  • findcate
    findcate
    i always am suprised when people suggest that I need to choose between being humane to animals and being humane to people. I think it's the opposite--compassion naturally extends itself rather than limiting itself. There is no reason to think that we are more worthy of compassion than animals. Mohandas Gandhi said that a nation's moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals. China has a record of unbelievable cruelty to both humans and animals. Actually, I think if the human race was able to look on animals as being worthy of compassion, the planet and ourselves would be much healthier as a result.
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    findcate wrote: i always am suprised when people suggest that I need to choose between being humane to animals and being humane to people.
    Eating grain-fed yearling cow is socially acceptable; eating grain-fed yearling human is not. I'm always surprised when people equate the two, because it's nearly dinner time and I need to choose what to have.
  • findcate
    findcate
    OK, doctorj... I'm sure if you were crated for a few weeks your malnourished meat would be very tasty, too.
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    findcate wrote: OK, doctorj... I'm sure if you were crated for a few weeks your malnourished meat would be very tasty, too.
    I don't think so. I've seen him, and his meat would not be well-marbled at all. :lol:
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    findcate wrote: OK, doctorj... I'm sure if you were crated for a few weeks your malnourished meat would be very tasty, too.
    As I'm sure you're aware, discerning cannibals prefer the taste of fresh young vegan. Carnivore is right: even after a good crating, I would not make the finest cut.
  • doctorj
    doctorj
    On a slightly more serious note, according to this interesting NYT piece, experiments on the evolutionary biology of morality indicate that humans find it more acceptable to kill an animal than a human.
  • isa
    isa
    There are other organizations rather than Peta to get information from.

    Compassion Over Killing is a good one.
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