Tyson Foods axes supplier over animal abuse claims

By Aidan Fortune

- Last updated on GMT

Shocking video footage shows barbaric treatment of chickens being impaled on metal nails
Shocking video footage shows barbaric treatment of chickens being impaled on metal nails

Related tags Tyson foods Animal welfare Vice president Poultry

US meat giant Tyson Foods has severed ties with a chicken farm facing allegations of animal abuse.

A member of animal welfare group Compassion over Killing went undercover at Atlantic Farm in Virginia and shot footage of abuse against the birds.

Graphic footage showed workers violently slamming or throwing live birds; another worker impaling live chicks with a metal nail at the end of a pipe; employees killing sick or injured birds by brutally bludgeoning or stepping on them; birds run over and crushed by forklifts; sick or injured birds piled on top of each other in buckets, with dead birds, and left to die and  birds unable to walk because of painful leg injuries or deformities.

Compassion Over Killing has submitted its footage to the authorities.

Tyson has terminated its contract with the farm in response to the graphic footage.

Doug Ramsey, group president of poultry for Tyson Foods, said: “We’re outraged by what’s shown in this video. The actions of these people are egregious, inexcusable and will not be tolerated by Tyson Foods."

“It’s our responsibility to ensure that everyone who works for and raises animals for our company treats animals properly. Within an hour of seeing this video, we confirmed the location and owner of the farm. We are terminating the contract with the farmer who allowed these actions to take place and are removing any of our birds from his care. As of 5 December, 10 employees of the contract catching crew shown in the video have been fired from their jobs,” added Ramsey.

Justin Whitmore, chief sustainability officer and executive vice president of corporate strategy for Tyson Foods, added:

“The people in this video were trained in proper animal handling, yet chose to ignore their training. They failed to alert management about the treatment on this farm and utterly failed to uphold a simple Tyson Foods core value of treating animals in their care humanely. A non-negotiable condition of employment or any contract agreement with Tyson Foods is a dedication to treating animals properly.

“Despite these bad actors and their shameful actions, the management of Tyson Foods continues to be dedicated to proper animal handling and cultivating our culture to ensure that animals are treated properly.”

As well as terminating the farmer’s contract, Tyson Foods​ will conduct a video conference where senior poultry management will stress its commitment to proper animal handling. The business is to immediately meet with everyone in its chicken operations who handle live birds to stress that every individual who works for the company is responsible for proper animal handling.

The company added that it has animal wellbeing audit and training programmes in place, including nearly 60 full-time dedicated animal well-being specialists across our beef, pork and poultry operations and that it is “firmly committed to ensuring that animal well-being policies are followed with a zero tolerance for anyone who does not comply”​.

Related topics Meat

Related news

comments

Post your comment

We will not publish your email address on the website

These comments have not been moderated. You are encouraged to participate with comments that are relevant to our news stories. You should not post comments that are abusive, threatening, defamatory, misleading or invasive of privacy. For the full terms and conditions for commenting see clause 7 of our Terms and Conditions ‘Participating in Online Communities’. These terms may be updated from time to time, so please read them before posting a comment. Any comment that violates these terms may be removed in its entirety as we do not edit comments. If you wish to complain about a comment please use the "REPORT ABUSE" button or contact the editors.

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars