Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on November 22, 2023 and reflects events that occurred that year. We’re republishing it in its original form this week before Thanksgiving.
Late at night on November 2, some animal rights activists opened an open barn door and stepped into a sea of turkeys living in appalling conditions. It is one of several barns in a sprawling factory farming operation in Owatonna, Minnesota, which is the nation’s second largest turkey producer and raises turkeys for Jenny-O. Supplier of the Year The annual White House turkey pardon ceremony.
“We registered A lot of really horrible health problems,” activist Kecia Doolittle, one of the investigators, told Vox. “It was almost as bad as you can imagine.”
Doolittle said they found numerous turkeys that were dead and decomposing, and many had trouble walking. There were live birds pecking at dead birds, and dozens of birds with visible wounds – each Signs of cannibalismA persistent problem Turkey farming.
Doolittle also complained that there were several turkeys that were immobilized and unable to access food and water. In a letter to the Steele County attorney and local law enforcement, Bonnie Clapper — a former assistant U.S. attorney advising Doolittle — said the terms were violated. Minnesota Animal Cruelty Lawwhich provides that “no person shall deprive any animal over which the person has responsibility or control of necessary food, water or shelter.” (Minnesota Hall One of the few states that they do not exempt agricultural practices from animal cruelty laws.)
“It smelled terrible,” Doolittle said. Her throat burned due to high ammonia levels from turkey waste, which the birds breathe Eye and respiratory problems.
Activists found a sign on the property that read, “Jenny-O’s Turkey Store Cares for Turkeys – You Should Too!”
A spokesperson for Jenny-O’s parent company, Hormel Foods, told Vox via email, “Jenny-O Turkey Store takes the welfare of the animals under our care seriously and has strong animal care standards throughout our supply chain. “We conduct regular audits at our facilities to ensure our standards are being met along with animal-handling practices and policies set forth by the National Turkey Federation and the American Veterinary Medical Association.”
Doolittle rescued the two birds—whom he later named Gabriel and Gilbert—and took them to a veterinarian in Wisconsin, who urged him to euthanize Gilbert. “They both had really bad infections, they both had parasites,” Doolittle said, but Gilbert was in particularly bad shape, with a wound under his wing, an infection in his mouth and a sore on his genital area.
But Doolittle wanted to give him a chance to recover. Both birds were treated and given a combination of antibiotics, pain relievers and antiparasitic drugs; Gabrielle is fine, while Gilbert’s condition is touch and go.
Sherstein is a veterinarian and executive director in Rosenberg, California Sanctuary for rescued poultry birdsA veterinary opinion wrote that Gabrielle and Gilbert’s condition “suggests serious animal welfare problems” at Jenny-O’s facility.
The results, while disturbing, are common across the turkey industry. There are numerous animal welfare groups found similar to Conditions A operation Directed by Jennie-O’s competitors — even as brands themselves more humane. That’s because turkey farming is incredibly homogenous, with companies generally using the same practices and the same breed — the Broad Breasted White turkey — that they’ve been bred for without regard for hardship.
How the poultry industry broke the turkey
Like everything else in the US – cars, house, cruise ship — The turkey is supersized.
The poultry industry initially made the turkey so big selective breeding. Broad-breasted white turkey, which accounts for 99 turkeys out of every 100 grocery storesEmphasis has been bred on — you guessed it — the breast, one of the more valuable parts of the bird. This bird grows up Twice as fast and became almost twice as large as in the 1960s. So being top-heavy, coupled with Other health problems Rapid growth and unsanitary factory farming environments make it difficult for them to walk.
Another problem arises from their giant breasts: the males are so large that they cannot mount the hens, so they must be artificially inseminated.
Author Jim Mason describes this practice in detail in his book The ethics of what we eatCo-authored by philosopher Peter Singer. Mason took a job with turkey giant Butterball to research the book, where, He wroteHe had to hold the male turkeys while another worker used a vacuum pump to stimulate them to eject their semen into a syringe. Once the syringe was full, it was taken to the henhouse, where Mason would pin the hen’s chest and another worker. Insert content Syringe into the chicken using an air compressor.
Farm workers had to do this with a chicken every 12 seconds for 10 hours a day. It was “the hardest, fastest, dirtiest, most loathsome, worst-paid work”, Mason wrote.
In stressful, crowded environments, turkeys can become aggressive and peck at each other, even promising. cannibals. Instead of giving turkeys more space and better conditions, producers mutilate them to reduce losses. They cut a one third Their beaks, their parts toesand theirs Snoods – those fleshy symptoms that hang over their lips – all without pain relief.
the turkeys except Federal law is meant to reduce animal suffering during transport to slaughterhouses and during slaughter, so you can imagine — or See for yourself – How terribly they are treated at the end. According to the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute, the Jenny-O slaughter plant near Doolittle’s farm has been investigated. nine times 2018 by the US Department of Agriculture for turkeys that were mutilated by faulty equipment.
Oddly enough, despite the grim reality of turkey farming, we still use the animal as a symbol of thanksgiving. nowhere singing and dancing We feel more disgusted by the White House’s annual turkey pardon than by the celebration of turkeys during their torture.
Mixed messages on White House turkey pardon
Every Thanksgiving, the US president “pardons” a turkey or two, which is essentially a PR stunt for the turkey industry, as are the birds. chosen By the chair of the National Türkiye Federation, an industry trade association. This year, Steve Liken, president of Jenny-O.
Two turkeys selected for this Forgiveness this year — Names may end in Liberty and Bell — 46 million or more birds This year at the Thanksgiving table. Instead, they were transported from Minnesota, the nation’s top turkey-producing state, to Washington, DC, in a stretched black Cadillac Escalade. “They have a pretty decent coach on their way,” Lykken to say Minnesota Public Radio.
If the annual story makes for feel-good Hammy Coverage by the nation’s largest news organizations, however, documents the darkness of American factory farming — not just animal cruelty, Hazardous working conditions in the slaughterhouse, Environmental pollutionAnd unfair treatment Turkey contract growers.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the Jenny-O investigation video.
This year, Art especially Awaiting Remission of Devastating Bird Flu. The disease, which has resurfaced this fall, has resulted in death 11.5 million Potentially infected turkeys from early 2022. Increasingly, producers are killing birds in the most brutal fashion imaginable, deploying a method called “ventilation shutdown plus” that uses industrial heaters to kill them by heatstroke within hours.
“Something fun that can bring positive attention to our industry is very welcome,” said Ashley Kohls, executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, in light of the outbreak. to say Minnesota Public Radio is all about forgiveness this year.
this weekLiberty and Bell will be transferred to the University of Minnesota to live out the rest of their lives. If the Turks knew what happened there, they might not want to go: the university Helped in construction The state’s turkey industry and still Conducts research On the turkey to confirm the industry success. University Interim President Previously served as President of Genie-O and CEO of its parent company, Hormel.
Meanwhile, Doolittle’s pardoned turkeys, Gabriel and Gilbert, assuming both survive, will spend the rest of their lives in an animal sanctuary, showing people what these birds can be like if they are allowed to live on their own terms. “They’re just the most curious, loving, intelligent boys,” Doolittle said.
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