What the Investigator Saw

Eyewitness Testimony From PETA's Investigation Into a Tyson Foods, Inc., Chicken Slaughterhouse

PETA's investigator witnessed and documented cruel killing methods being used at a Tyson Foods chicken slaughterhouse in Heflin, Alabama. The slaughtering system being used at the plant resulted in the torture of countless chickens—the routine mutilation by a mechanical blade, manual decapitation, and scalding in defeathering tanks—all while they were still completely conscious. The following are excerpts from the investigator's notes:

December 7, 2004: First day at Tyson. I see the "live hang room" on the new employee tour. The air is hot and thick with the stench of blood. The only illumination is from dim red lights, like a photographer's dark room. This is supposed to keep chickens calm, but they are frightened; squawking, running, flapping their wings, and trying to hide. Workers move at a furious pace to hang live chickens by their feet from metal shackles on a conveyor belt. Birds' throats are cut by automatic blades further down the line. A worker cuts the throats of chickens the machine misses. The noise of voices, machines, and chickens screaming is deafening.

I'm told Tyson kills 150 to 200 thousand chickens a day here and that I'll "get used to" the noise and smells.

December 8, 2004: First day as "backup killer." I have to cut chickens' throats the automated blade misses, so they don't go into the scalding feather-removal bath alive. Only one person does this job, and the line moves so fast, it is impossible to give every chicken a lethal cut. When more chickens come through than can be handled, some workers rip off their heads while they hang shackled. They ignore the squawking and blood; that's business as usual on the killing line. There is a help button and an emergency stop button, but my boss tells me not to stop the line for missed birds. If no one comes to help immediately, birds are scalded to death.

December 9, 2004: A worker picked up one chicken who escaped the shackles and smashed her against the side of a wheelbarrow full of dead chickens. He left her convulsing on top of the corpses.

December 12, 2004: Took footage … of birds in a wheelbarrow who were alive/injured on top of other birds who were dead. Birds in the wheelbarrow get dumped into a Dumpster outside.

December 13, 2004: Took more video of birds in a pile of dirt and fecal matter on the floor. Some were alive, some were dead ... I noticed today that many birds coming to me had their wings broken and bones exposed. It was almost always the birds' left wing … I noticed many birds with broken wings—and one who had been mutilated by the blade seemed to have her chest ripped open somehow.

December 14, 2004: The beginning of today's video shows more of my coworkers ripping birds' heads off. It is lengthy. After this, I have a conversation with my boss. I tell him that many birds come through with broken wings and ask why. He confirms my suspicion that it is because of a malfunction in the machinery that cuts the birds' throats. Then I ask him if this is also why some birds come through mangled, with their chests cut, and he nods yes … . This results in live birds with broken wings and other mutilations.

December 15, 2004: During work, I saw a bird whose head had been painfully hung in the shackles underneath his foot.

December 16, 2004: Today, I was assigned the job of putting dead birds into wheelbarrows and taking them out to the Dumpster … . At one point, I picked up a baby bird and placed her on the conveyor belt. The guy working that part of the line picked up the bird and slammed her into the belt—to kill her, I assume.

December 19, 2004: Many mutilated chickens were coming down the line. One bird's chest was slashed open. Some were split in half, while some were completely gone—the only thing left was their legs hanging from the shackles. I ran down the line trying to cut all their throats and saw that the cutting machine had malfunctioned. I stopped the line and called for help. I had to cut each waiting chicken's throat by hand while maintenance workers fixed it.

February 7, 2005: [L]ast night, I witnessed a bird who was obviously hung in a hurry—as she was only hanging by her head in the leg shackle. I stopped the line, removed her, and started the line again. She blinked numerous times and she was breathing as I laid her down. I am guessing her neck was broken and she was paralyzed. For whatever reason, she was unable to move.