Turkey Industry Uses ‘Ethically Repugnant’ Breeding Practices

[nosmokes]

i doubt that this is news for most of y'all, but if you're the squeamish sort, you don't wanna be watching that video. take my word for it, ok? once again, i can't say it too loud or too often. support your local farmer!
Buy local
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original-newstandard


Turkey Industry Uses ‘Ethically Repugnant’ Breeding Practices
by Megan Tady

Jan. 17 – A national animal-rights group is calling attention to the forced artificial insemination of turkeys and the health effects of industry standards for breeding and growing the birds.

As consumer demand for turkey meat has grown, turkey breeders have genetically manipulated the birds to grow faster and to be heavier and larger-breasted.

Such anatomical changes have rendered most double-breasted turkeys unable to reproduce on their own, which, coupled with increasing demand for turkey meat, has prompted commercial breeders to turn to artificial insemination as a regular practice.

Calling it "unnatural" and "ethically repugnant," Farm Sanctuary, an organization devoted to protecting farm animals, released a video depicting the artificial-insemination process to accompany a report exploring the process.

In the video, which was reviewed by The NewStandard, workers "milk" male turkeys to collect their semen. The males' legs are locked in a clamp while workers manually induce the turkeys' genitalia to force ejaculation.

**A L S O**
Video: Artificial Insemination : Inside a turkey facility

The video also shows the forced insemination of female turkeys, which Farm Sanctuary says takes place in "assembly line fashion." The females' legs are also secured in clamps and held upside down while semen is inserted.

Farm Sanctuary said artificial insemination is part of a physically harmful breeding process. The turkeys' abnormally bred bodies can lead to health complications, and their bodies are too big for their legs so they have difficulty walking.
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complete article, including link to the video here

[Gloria]

1. Yes, this is really so cruel. Having seen a wild turkey up close

it's really pretty scary to see how they've been "modified."

Thanksgiving has been pretty much the only holiday I've paid attention too, but it's really getting too ugly.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. My goodness.

That's almost as horrible as chopping off their heads and feasting on their flesh.

[Rex]

3. So jacking off a turkey to make money is unethical?

Don't tell the porn industry!

[Warren DeMontague]

8. I thought for sure we were gonna get Jeff Gannon in there, somewhere.

[LeftyMom]

4. yep, they breed them with chests so large they can't stand or breed, because people want more

white meat, and lord knows it's always got to be about the whim of the consumer, no matter how much pain that causes. So now agribusiness and American turkey eaters have created a creature so crippled by the size of it's chest muscles that it can barely stand and can't breed on it's own, reared it in a tiny cage, slaughtered it, injected it with salt water to make it heavier still, then sold it to people who usually get sick of eating so damn much of it long before it's body is gone.

The crazy thing? Turkeys still like us.



This guy was found in a box in a dumpster when he was at most a few days old. He likes being petted between the wings on his back and being touched on his head and neck. He comes when called and makes the most interesting noises, coos and almost a purring noise, when he's petted. He lives at Farm Sanctuary in Orland and nobody's ever going to eat him, but millions of his brothers and sisters aren't so lucky.

[TheMadMonk]

7. And exactly the same attitude is the cause of Walmart, offshoring...

and a good many other of America's ills. Corporations may indeed be the epitome of evil, but in many ways the consumers are just as much to blame with the demands for an ever increasing more at an ever decreasing price.

[MonkeyFunk]

5. this explains

[dysfunctional press]

6. being a carnivore isn't always pretty...

i'm just glad that there's someone else to do THAT dirty work...I used to the dirty/back-breaking work of high-rise concrete construction...there's plenty of lousy jobs to go around in our society.

[TheMadMonk]

9. If that's the worst animal handling practice you ever see...

You'll be doing well.

The super-sizing is definitely wrong. However the chicken meat industry is far worse.

The crowding is excessive, but not excessively so. Again chickens are far more crowded and the egg industry is not to be contemplated on a full stomach if you're at all squeamish.


And finally I suspect a good deal of dis-ingenuousness in their claims about laws against sexual contact with animals which I strongly suspect are those prohibiting bestiality.