SPRINGDALE, Ariz. — Four Tyson Foods meatpacking plant employees have been fired and two others suspended after hidden video footage from an animal rights group alleges the workers improperly shackled and slaughtered chickens at a company plant in Mississippi.
The video from Mercy for Animals secretly recorded the Tyson employees tossing and punching the birds and ripping the heads off of some chickens that were improperly shackled during the slaughtering process, so that the kill blade designed to cut their throats missed.
"We were appalled by the actions shown in this video," a Tyson statement said. "We started investigating a claim of animal mistreatment of the plant during the third week of October. As a result, we have fired four workers and suspended two others."
Tyson is the world’s largest meatpacking company, processing more than 40 million chickens annually at the company’s 57 U.S. plants, and another 500 million pigs and head of cattle at Tyson’s 50 other food production plants worldwide. The investigation by Mercy for Animals was the fourth probe involving Tyson. The latest videos were shot at the company’s Carthage, Miss., facility.
A spokesperson for Mercy for Animals said it filed court affidavits and a 2.5-minute video with Leake County, Miss., authorities to pursue misdemeanor criminal charges against the six employees. Tyson stated, "To our knowledge, no criminal charges have been filed by any government agency."
The nonprofit animal rights organization’s video and affidavits allege the company and its workers violated 33 counts of state animal cruelty statutes and allege the misconduct is "ongoing and systemic."
In the Tyson Foods statement, a spokesperson said, "We believe proper animal handling is an important moral and ethical obligation. Everyone who works with live animals in our plants – including the person who secretly shot this video – is trained in proper animal handling and instructed to immediately report anything they believe is inappropriate.
"Workers are encouraged to report bad behavior to their supervisor as well as (to) the Tyson Food compliance and ethics hotline."
Previous videos by Mercy for Animals targeted independently owned farms supplying food-producing animals to the Arizona-headquartered company. Following one video, Tyson and McDonald’s Corp., one of the company’s largest clients, shut down ties with a Tennessee poultry farm after Mercy for Animals footage showed workers clubbing, stabbing and crushing chickens to death.
The approved slaughtering process for chickens used in most poultry plants has the chickens suspended upside down by their feet on a conveyor belt guiding them into a second room, where the chickens are stunned with electricity to render them senseless, and then their throats are cut.
Mercy for Animals is calling for this process to end and is encouraging companies to use a method called controlled atmosphere, which removes oxygen from the air instead of electricity, a process that would eliminate animal suffering.
Mike Rice, the animal rights group’s director of investigations, said, "This culture of cruelty and neglect cannot be allowed to continue."
Mercy for Animals is a nonprofit, Chicago-based animal advocacy organization and the world’s leading farm animal rights group.
