Chicken Abuse

Chicken Abuse
Originally uploaded by mryosemite.

Reuters
July 26th, 2004

Fort Worth, Texas - The man who secretly videotaped chickens stomped and thrown at a Pilgrim's Pride plant in West Virginia said some of the worst abuses occurred when employees purposely destroyed birds to avoid working overtime.

"The immediate supervisor was definitely aware of it," said the investigator with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "He would come in once or twice a day and witness birds being slammed against the wall."

Pilgrim's Pride said it fired 11 employees at its Moorefield, W.Va., plant, including a superintendent, a supervisor, a foreman and eight hourly workers as a result of an internal investigation of alleged animal welfare violations.

The PETA member said he saw abuses from his first day on the job in October 2003, then began videotaping about a week later. He used a small camera hidden in an area where live chickens are transferred from trucks to conveyor belts, then hung by their feet before being slaughtered. He taped mistreatment of chickens on numerous occasions until leaving the plant in May, he said.

The heaviest abuses occurred on days when unusually large shipments of birds arrived from contract growers.

"Neither the workers nor the supervisor wanted to work overtime, so they'd throw a number of chickens against the wall," the PETA member said.

"The immediate supervisor would often say 'Cease-fire' or 'Hold your fire' before entering the hanging pen", the PETA member said, "so he would not be hit by live chickens. When he left, he'd say, 'Carry on.'"

Tell me if I'm reading this right. You're NOT allowed to kick the birds or throw them against the wall, but you ARE allowed to cut their heads off and eat them. Ok, sounds good, thanks for clarifying. The next time PETA writes me a ticket for kicking the neighbor's dog, I'll offer to eat him instead.