Turkey abuse unacceptable, group says

Birds allegedly tormented for fun

RAEFORD -- A national animal rights group is seeking animal cruelty charges against a major North Carolina poultry producer, claiming that workers at a Raeford plant punched, tossed and mutilated live turkeys for fun.

Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals in Columbus, Ohio, said his group found numerous violations of state law in a monthlong undercover investigation at a House of Raeford Farms slaughterhouse. He said the practices went beyond what is allowed under food processing regulations.

Even animals that are being processed for food have a right "not to be tortured," Runkle said.

The group, which plans a news conference today in Raleigh to discuss its claims, also plans to turn over photos, videotapes and affidavits to a Hoke County prosecutor.

Runkle said various Raeford employees used shackled turkeys like punching bags, ripped the heads off live birds and rammed their hands into birds to pull out eggs that they then threw at other workers. In some cases, he said, management personnel observed the practices and did nothing.

Telephone calls and e-mail requests for comment to House of Raeford officials were not returned Friday.

House of Raeford Farms controls everything from breeding birds to processing raw and cooked chickens and turkeys. It has eight facilities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Michigan.

Runkle said workers responsible for the animal abuse cannot be charged under federal law because the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not include turkeys and chickens in its enforcement of a law that governs humane slaughter of animals. Poultry is not considered livestock.

But Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA inspection service, said Friday that the agency has taken action on allegations of animal abuse in the past. He said he could not speak specifically about the current allegations against House of Raeford.

"I don't know anything about what they are alleging, but I can guarantee you we would follow up vigorously against allegations of that kind," he said.

Runkle said a representative of Mercy for Animals worked last January and February in the "live-hang" area of the slaughterhouse where birds are snapped into shackles before being killed. The anonymous worker secretly filmed with a hidden camera, he said.

The organization's Web site, http://mercyforanimals.org/hor, includes videotape and photographs from the investigation.

In a letter to Hoke County Prosecutor Kristy Newton, Runkle said the illegal activities warranted misdemeanor and criminal charges. Lawful actions conducted for the purpose of production of livestock or poultry processing are exempt from cruelty laws, he said, but the employees' actions were not lawful because they were malicious.