Tyson Chicken Factory Farm Caught On Hidden Camera Torturing And Neglecting Animals

Mercy For Animals Calls on World's Largest Meat Producer to Implement Chicken Welfare Standards After Video Exposes Workers Kicking, Clubbing, and Throwing Animals

News provided by

Mercy For Animals

Jul 09, 2015, 08:15 ET

WILMINGTON, Del., July 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Disturbing undercover video footage of shocking animal abuse at a Tyson Foods contract farm in Delaware was released this morning at www.TysonTorturesAnimals.com. The video shows thousands of baby birds bred to grow so fast they became crippled under their own weight, workers carelessly kicking, clubbing, and throwing chickens, and thousands of severely sick and injured animals left to suffer without proper veterinary care or access to food and water. Mercy For Animals is calling on Tyson to swiftly adopt meaningful animal welfare policies to end many of the worst forms of animal abuse and neglect in its supply chain. Tyson Foods is the largest meat producer in the world.

MFA is hosting a tele-press conference at 11 a.m. Eastern time at 323-452-6920.

The video was shot at McGinnis Farms in Dagsboro, Delaware—a contract farm for Tyson Foods—and reveals widespread animal abuse and suffering, including the following:

Workers violently clubbing animals to death, breaking their necks, and leaving severely sick and injured animals to die without food or water
Baby birds carelessly thrown to the ground from transport crates suffering broken bones and other severe injuries
Chickens bred to grow so fast they became crippled under their own weight and frequently died from heart attacks and organ failure
Hundreds of thousands of birds crammed into filthy, windowless sheds forced to live for weeks in their own waste and toxic ammonia fumes

MFA is now calling on Tyson Foods to implement meaningful animal welfare requirements for all of its company-owned and contract farms and slaughterhouses, including ending selective breeding for rapid growth and shifting to slower-growing breeds to prevent health problems related to accelerated growth, providing birds with more space, clean litter, access to natural light, and environmental enrichments, and replacing live-shackle slaughter methods with less cruel systems that eliminate the horrific suffering caused by dumping, shackling, shocking, and slitting the throats of conscious animals.

"Tyson Foods is literally torturing chickens to death," said MFA's president, Nathan Runkle. "They are crammed into filthy, windowless sheds, thrown, kicked, and brutalized by careless workers, and bred to grow so fast they suffer from painful leg deformities and heart attacks. This is sickening animal abuse no company with morals should support. Tyson Foods has not only the power, but also the ethical responsibility to end the worst forms of cruelty to animals in its supply chain."

To view the undercover video, visit www.TysonTorturesAnimals.com.

SOURCE Mercy For Animals