After they were caught
on video beating animals to death with spiked clubs, former McDonald’s
chicken suppliers Thomas
and Susan Blassingame lost their longtime contract with Tyson Foods, pled guilty to criminal
cruelty to animals,
and quit the chicken factory farming business for good. The Blassingames were
fined $25 each—a paltry slap on the wrist for such horrific animal abuse—and placed
on a year of unsupervised probation.
Watch
the video that led to the shutdown of this McDonald’s chicken supplier:
But
this is just one of thousands of factory farms that help grow the whopping 2
billion chickens Tyson slaughters each year in the United States. Multiple undercover investigations at Tyson Foods have uncovered
a pattern of egregious cruelty and neglect nearly identical to that exposed at
this McDonald’s McNugget supplier.
Most
recently, MFA filed affidavits to initiate criminal animal cruelty
charges
against Tyson and six of its slaughterhouse workers after a hidden camera
captured them violently punching, throwing, and maliciously torturing animals
for fun.
Clearly,
this isn’t about the failure of a single factory farm or slaughterhouse to meet
industry standards; it’s a matter of industry standards allowing for blatant
animal abuse.
Chickens
are arguably the most abused animals on the planet. But that isn’t going to
change because Tyson Foods fired one of its suppliers or a few people were
convicted of animal abuse. Change is needed throughout Tyson’s entire supply
chain.
To
that end, MFA is calling on Tyson Foods to end selective breeding of birds for
rapid growth and to shift to slower-growing breeds of birds to prevent health
problems related to accelerated growth. Birds should be provided with more
space, clean litter, access to natural light, and environmental enrichments. Additionally,
the live-shackle slaughter method should be replaced by less cruel systems that
eliminate the horrific suffering caused by shackling, shocking, and slitting
the throats of conscious animals.
MFA’s
investigations at chicken factory farms and
slaughterhouses
across the country reveal that animal abuse runs rampant in the poultry
industry.
MFA
has worked with some of the largest food producers in the world, including
Nestlé, Walmart, and Kraft Foods, to implement meaningful animal welfare
policies to alleviate much of the animal suffering in their supply chains.
There’s no reason Tyson can’t implement such a policy of its own. Click here to sign the petition calling on Tyson to stop torturing
chickens.
Remember,
as a caring consumer, the best way to help chickens and other farmed animals is
simply to stop eating them. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.