RSPCA: The use of Killing Pliers is not something we agree with as we believe they are ineffective and inhumane. However, they are legally permitted for killing birds weighing less than 5kg.
VICTORIA BELL: ‘Harrowing footage shows the moment a worker at one of Britain’s biggest turkey farms was secretly filmed killing two birds by crushing their necks with pliers. Animal welfare group Viva! conducted a three-month investigation at Gravel Farm in Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire.
The group claims its footage – taken between September and November – shows a worker dislocating the necks of two turkeys with a “neck crushing device”. After crushing their necks, both birds appear to flap around in distress for several minutes.
A spokesperson from Viva! told Yahoo News that the birds in the footage were sick or injured but were killed in an “unnecessarily cruel” way… Viva! claims dying birds at the farm were found with untreated bloody wounds, causes by other distressed birds pecking out their feathers… Other harrowing parts of the footage show turkeys with open, bloodied wounds packed into filthy pens on concrete covered in faeces…
Gravel Farm provided turkey meat to Avara Foods, which supplies Sainsbury’s, but the supermarket giant has now stopped using the farm, a spokesperson told Yahoo News. Red Tractor – the UK’s largest food standards scheme – was “shocked” by the use of the devices, which it deems “extremely cruel”. The investigation has prompted Red Tractor to drop the turkey farm from the list of suppliers allowed to display their logo.
Lex Rigby, Viva! campaigns manager, said: “We are absolutely thrilled by Red Tractor’s decision to drop Gravel Farm. “Our team witnessed appalling conditions, documenting the systematic abuse of farmed turkeys, whose shorts lives are filled with nothing but misery and pain. “While some birds were ruthlessly killed with barbaric neck crushing devices others were left to die slow, agonising deaths from their injuries – all for the sake of Christmas dinner.
An RSPCA spokeswoman told Yahoo news: “The use of ‘killing pliers’ is not something we agree with as we believe they are ineffective and inhumane. However, mechanical devices are legally permitted for killing birds weighing less than 5kg”.’ SOURCE…
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