Video Exposes Reality of 'Happy' Turkeys Trucked 12 Hours to Be Killed for 'Rich, Dumb' People's Thanksgiving Meal
“[R]ich, dumb people in New York pay $300 for them.”
That comment was made in November 2018 at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in Kansas after workers and volunteers shoved 1,400 so-called “heritage” and “happy” turkeys into filthy cages on a truck bound for a slaughterhouse.
Please help us ensure that fewer turkeys will be forced to face this terrifying, gruesome fate.
Sick, Injured, and Left to Die
One turkey was gasping for air. As she took her final breaths, workers said that she was “sick,” “not right,” and lame and that she had a broken leg. A supervisor pronounced her “dead,” but the bird flapped her wings vigorously.
Workers laughed after one of them left her on the ground to die.
Another turkey had lost her left eyeball. A worker who was notified of this joked that she was a “pirate.”
Surrounded, Herded, Jabbed, Smothered, and Yanked by a Wing
Workers huddled around and drove frightened turkeys into a shed. A man jabbed one with a stick.
Two turkeys died after panicking. Frank R. Reese Jr., who owns and operates Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, admitted that “we herded the turkeys” and they “smothered themselves to death.”
Workers grabbed and yanked turkeys by the neck, a wing, or a leg.
Caged and Hauled Off to Slaughter Just Like Turkeys Killed for Butterball
Turkeys cried out, struggled, and tried to escape as workers carried them upside down by only the legs, without supporting their weight. Some workers held one bird in each hand as the turkeys frantically flapped their wings.
They were crammed into cages on a truck, where they’d have to stay for at least 12 hours—without food or water—en route to a slaughterhouse in Ohio. One of Reese’s contract farmers noted that the turkeys “can’t move their wings [or] legs. … The big turkeys are pretty crammed in.”
She acknowledged that the birds die in transport because “they just get scared.” A worker added that they “trample … each other.”
At the slaughterhouse, they’d be shackled upside down and their throats would be slit—just like turkeys killed for Butterball.
Sold to 'Rich, Dumb People' in New York and Elsewhere
According to one of his helpers, Reese depends on “rich, dumb people in New York” to “pay $300” for one of these turkeys, whose bodies are sold for hundreds of dollars by Heritage Foods USA and served in high-priced restaurants in New York and elsewhere.
Heritage Foods boasts that it saves “endangered species of livestock from extinction” and that “the only way to save these animals is to eat them.” That’s rich!
Equally sickening is Reese’s claim that the “Good Shepherd” in his farm’s name is “a statement of my faith, my philosophy and my approach to farming.”
As the Bible teaches, true good shepherds lay down their lives for those in their care—they don’t ship others off so that their throats can be slit for cash.
Turkeys Need You to Help Stop This!
Don’t be misled by quaint farm names and claims about “humanely raised” animals. “Humane meat” is a fiction.
It’s plain and simple: Going vegan is the best thing that you can do for turkeys, and we’re here to help. We have plenty of resources to assist you, so take the pledge today!
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