Tyson Foods, the nation's largest chicken processor, fired two Carthage, Miss., meatpacking employees on Wednesday after video surfaced of the "workers tossing and punching birds and ripping the heads off some chickens," Kesley Gee and Jacob Bunge report for The Wall Street Journal. The animal-rights group Mercy for Animals said the chickens "were improperly shackled and had missed the kill blade designed to slit their throats."
A Tyson spokesman said, “We do not believe the behavior shown in this video by the two team members we have now terminated is representative of the actions of the thousands of workers we employ across the country.” But it wasn't the first time Mercy for Animals has released video of animal cruelty at Tyson plants. In August, Tyson and McDonald’s Corp., one of the meatpacker’s largest customers, severed ties with a Tennessee poultry farm after Mercy for Animals released video footage of chickens being stabbed, clubbed and crushed to death.
Mercy for Animals, which has now released four videos of animal cruelty at Tyson plants, "said it filed affidavits this week asking a Leake County, Miss., court to pursue misdemeanor criminal charges against Tyson and six employees," Gee and Bunge write. "The group alleges the workers and Tyson violated a state animal cruelty statute on 33 counts and that the behavior documented is 'ongoing and systemic.'" (Read more)
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