Gruesome video from Abbotsford turkey plant renews call for humane slaughtering

WARNING: The video we have linked to is graphic

ABBOTSFORD (NEWS 1130) – An international organization dedicated to preventing farm animal cruelty has released an undercover video which claims to show turkeys at Abbotsford’s Lilydale plant being “tortured to death”.

The edited two-minute package shows turkeys shackled by their feet being dragged through electrified water before their necks are cut by a rotating blade. In some cases, the blade misses its mark and slices into the birds’ faces.

At one point in the video, an anonymous worker explains off-camera that not all of the turkeys die before they’re dropped into boiling water.

These animals are still alive, they’re blinking, they’re vocalizing, they’re in severe pain as they’re going through this process; it’s torture,” says Mercy for Animals Executive Vice President Matt Rice.

“I didn’t see anything that made me think it was something different from standard, says Robin Horel, President and CEO of Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council.

“It’s really a situation where most of us have no connection anymore to agriculture or farms and certainly not to processing plants, and I get that.”

Rice is pushing for Lilydale’s parent company Sofina Foods to commit to implementing controlled-atmosphere killing at all of their plants.

Controlled-atmosphere stunning involves removing the oxygen from the birds’ atmosphere while they’re in transport, replacing it with a non-poisonous gas that puts them to sleep. The animals can then be left to suffocate, or slaughtered by another means.

Horel confirms there is an industry-wide move towards controlled atmosphere stunning, but that most plants would use that method alone to kill the animals.

Rice says Sofina competitor Maple Leaf foods has committed to implementing CAK at all of their plants following a similar Mercy for Animals investigation. Cargill Canada has made a similar pledge.

“Even people who eat meat agree that animals should not be tortured to death in the process,” Rice concludes.

In a statement released following an investigation by W5, Sofina Foods notes that the practices shown in Abbotsford “comply with current industry practices and government regulations.” They add that their first controlled-atmosphere stunning system is “due for delivery in the new year.”