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People Are Horrified After Photos Of Turkeys At An Abusive Farm Were Released Online

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On November 20, American animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), well known for their work breaking into factory farms to expose the barbaric conditions they force their animals to live and die in, released a videos and a series of photos of turkeys being raised for slaughter in Utah.

Source: Direct Action Everywhere

The images reveal the horrific conditions the birds are forced to live in; 10,000 young turkeys were crammed into a hangar, a large number of them injured or sick. Some of them had been trampled or pecked to death by other birds and were being eaten by the survivors.

"I’ve never seen anything as horrific"

For several months, a DxE team had been breaking into 14 turkey barns, where thousands of animals were confined by food producer Norbest.Although the company - that 'processes' 5 million turkeys every year -has stated that it has 'humane' business practices and that they "are committed to the care of [their] birds and have well-established animal care standards," the images from the barns seem to contradict these claims.

Source: Direct Action Everywhere

Because of the large number of turkeys being forced to live in such close quarters, many of them were injured, while others had tumors and cysts caused by a hepatitis breakout. The horrendous conditions inside the barns shocked members of the team who had been investigating factory farms for over a decade. Co-founder of DxE Wayne Hsiung told The Salt Lake Tribune:

I’ve been investigating animals for 10 years, and I’ve never seen anything as horrific.

"My goal is to prevent such an unfortunate situation from ever being repeated."

In light of the evidence brought to the company by DxE, Matt Cook, Norbest's CEO, released a statement. According to him, this was not the first time that this particular turkey barn had shown signs of abuse.They had notified the group in charge of the farms that it was violating their animal welfare policy and suspended their contract after these weren't corrected.

Source: Direct Action Everywhere

Cook said that he was "disappointed" that the farmer had not taken any steps to improve the living conditions of his turkeys. It now intends to take more steps to ensure that its subcontractors meet its standards.

We will re-examine every step in our training and inspection process to determine whether there is more we can do to guarantee our animal care standards are met. My goal is to prevent such an unfortunate situation from ever being repeated.

More transparency

To expose malpractice, Direct Action Everywhere has had to resort to breaking the law, since trespassing - breaking into the barns - is illegal, as is undercover filming and photography.The groups hopes that, after their actions resulted in catching out animal abusers, laws will be reformed to make it easier for people to prove that abuse is taking place. They have also launched an online petition to ask Norbest to stop working with farms that abuse turkeys. You can sign it on their website.Watch DxE's video below:

H/t: Direct Action Everywhere

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