Butterball is facing intense backlash after a nearly 20-year-old video resurfaced showing employees brutally mistreating turkeys, sparking outrage online.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shared the old video on their Instagram, captioning it, "Do you know what happened to your Butterball turkey before they were killed?" The post also urged followers to learn more about "Butterball's House of Horrors," referencing PETA's undercover investigation at a slaughterhouse in Ozark, Arkansas.
The video shows a Butterball employee stomping on a bird's head until its skull exploded, another swinging a turkey against a metal handrail with such force that its backbone popped out, and a third inserting his finger into a turkey's vagina, according to the PETA investigation.
PETA investigators uncovered these gruesome accounts from April 2006 to July 2006 at the plant that slaughtered about 50,000 birds daily.
Social Media Outrage
Many on social media are urging a boycott of the brand as Thanksgiving approaches on Thursday.
"It was bad enough your company [Butterball] is based on selling dead turkeys...did they have to be SA too?" comedian Corinne Fisher commented on Butterball's Instagram post.
"May they face the suffering they've inflicted. Monsters are real, disguised in human form. Not all humans are alike–some embody true evil," another user wrote.
"STOP ANIMAL CRUELTY," actress Hilda Abrahamz also commented.
Another user said, "I threw away my butterball turkey and will never be buying from you again."
Why Did the Video Resurface?
Newsweek contacted PETA to ask why it chose to resurface the 18-year-old video.
"It was part of a batch of ahead of Thanksgiving type posts," Amber Canavan, PETA's vegan campaigns project manager, told Newsweek. "Our "Thanksvegan" campaign, as we call it, is a big thing that we do every year."
Canavan continued: "It's a prime time to get people thinking about the bird that's going to be, on that center place of their table. What people generally don't want to think about is everything that happened to them and their parents to get them onto that table."
Butterball responded to Newsweek's request for comment: "We are aware of a video from nearly 20 years ago, which is being re-shared across social media. This video is not current and was taken prior to Butterball becoming a private company and prior to our engagement and certification through American Humane. Animal care and well-being is central to who we are as a company, and we are committed to the ethical and responsible care of our flocks," a Butterball spokesperson said in the statement.
"Eleven years ago, Butterball was the first, and remains the only, turkey company to be American Humane certified. That means we have yearly audits conducted by a third party to ensure compliance with our 200+ science-based standards of best practice for care of turkeys, well exceeding industry best practices. We are proud of this designation that no other turkey company can claim and have a zero-tolerance policy for animal mistreatment," the statement continued.
American Humane Certified is a certification program ensuring animals used in food production are treated according to specific welfare standards. It is granted to farms, ranches and other facilities meeting guidelines for humane treatment, which include proper handling, living conditions and care of animals throughout their lives.
"We've challenged butterball about its American Humane Association certification," Canavan said. "We've actually filed an FTC complaint against them for the misleading nature of these certifications and the marketing claims."
She continued, "They slap this label on that says 'humanely raised', but they're still raising them in conditions that are basically industry standard so they can mutilate these turkeys without pain relief."
Canavan said Butterball isn't the only corporation to face backlash over animal cruelty—Plainville Turkey Farms was under fire in 2021, resulting in a PETA investigation.
"We also found workers kicking birds around like footballs, mimicking sexual acts on them–things that were egregious abuse," Canavan said. "The Plainville investigation actually did result in felony charges against many of the workers."
Plainville Turkey Farms is now permanently closed.
"If they think there's nothing to hide behind what's happening to the turkeys that they're selling to the public, why don't they have live streamed cameras in their slaughterhouses? And, I think we all know the answer," Canavan said.
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