USA: Slaughter - A new undercover investigation from Mercy for Animals

Largely hidden from view, every year over 9 billion chickens and 250 million turkeys are raised on factory farms and killed in our nation's slaughterhousesTheir suffering often goes unseen and their cries unheard - until now A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation takes you behind the closed doors of one of the country's largest poultry slaughterhouses –House of Raeford Farms, Inc. in Raeford, North Carolina. In January and February of 2007 an MFA investigator worked in the "live-hang" area of the plant (where live birds are snapped into shackles on the slaughter line), secretly filming egregious acts of animal cruelty with a hidden camera. Shocking abuses he witnessed include: --Turkeys with broken wings and legs, bloody open wounds, tumors and other untreated injures being slaughtered for human consumption --A worker violently punching live, shackled turkeys for "fun" --Employees forcefully shoving their hands into the cloacae (vaginal cavities) of live chickens --Turkeys and chickens being thrown across the facility and up into the air --Workers ripping the heads off live turkeys --Birds being crushed to death under the wheels of trucks --Conscious turkeys having their throats slit After viewing the footage, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and meat-industry advisor Dr. Temple Grandin—who is generally recognized as the world's leading scientific authority on animal welfare—said, "This is a sloppy poorly managed plant where employees are allowed to abuse animals...There are some management people that need to get fired.” The workers responsible for the abuse cannot be charged under federal law because the USDA refuses to protect turkeys and chickens in its enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act...