From December 2004 through February 2005, an undercover investigator for
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed to have worked on the slaughter line of a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Heflin, Alabama. Using a hidden camera, he allegedly documented the treatment of the more than 100,000 chickens killed every day in the plant.
PETA alleges that workers were instructed to rip the heads off of birds who missed the throat-cutting machines. He claims he saw birds scalded alive in the feather removal tank, and he said that managers said that it was acceptable to scald 40 birds alive per shift. Interestingly the job the investigator was hired to do was to prevent the alleged abuses he videotaped: preventing birds from going into the scald tank alive. The investigator claims plant employees were also seen throwing around dead birds just for fun.
PETA has asked Tyson to implement
Controlled Atmosphere Killing. For this reason,
PETA is boycotting businesses that use Tyson as a supplier, such as
KFC and distribution channels such as
Sunset Strips. The video, taken by the investigator of the killings, was posted on
YouTube.
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