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Viva!
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December 2001 Christmas Turkey Shock as Farm
Conditions are Exposed Filming at the Bernard Matthews plant took place inside one of its huge, windowless sheds at Weston Longville. It shows thousands of large birds crammed together with little space between them. There are dead, dying and badly injured birds. The Kerry Foods shed is at Bawburgh and although containing supposedly free range, highly-priced bronze turkeys, the video again shows overcrowding. A series of gruesome injuries are revealed, including many huge, open wounds - one dripping pus. Investigators saw at least 40 birds which needed to be euthanased. Scenes from other farms show numerous dark, windowless sheds crammed with turkeys, ill and dying birds and in one distressing scene, a blind turkey is pecked in the eye by other turkeys. Aggression is a direct result of the stressful conditions. On two other farms, juvenile turkeys are shown in conditions so overcrowded that there is no space between them. They are aggressively pecking each other and feather pulling. Part of their beaks have been radically amputated in an attempt to prevent them damaging each other. Defra maintains that only the very tip of the upper beak should be removed. Many young birds are shown with the upper part of their beak completely amputated. It is carried out with an automatic cutter and a red-hot cauterising blade and is extremely painful. It and can result in death or life-long pain. Viva!’s director, Juliet Gellatley, says: “People glibly talk about factory farms and yet most have never been allowed to see inside one. When you look at this footage you immediately know why. At the moment our supermarkets are crammed with dead birds wrapped in plastic emblazoned with all kinds of claims - farm fresh, welfare assured, prime quality. But what you see on this tape gives the lie to the marketing hype. Why anyone would want to celebrate the season of peace and goodwill by cooking one of these sad, abused, diseased and dejected animals beats me. Their lives consist of nothing but cruelty - so inexcusable and profound that it shames us all. One of Viva!’s priorities is to keep exposing the reality of factory farming and end it.” Copies of the video Stuffed!, a large
selection of still pictures and a fact sheet on turkey farming are available
from Kat Macmillan or Juliet Gellatley on 0117 944 1000. >
Watch Viva!'s undercover video of factory farmed turkeys - "Stuffed!" |
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