Mercy For Animals Canada recently released an investigation revealing extreme cruelty at a turkey breeding operation in Bright, Ontario. Hybrid Turkeys is not in the business of slaughtering animals for meat production, but is centered on breeding animals that will end of up on factory farms.
The fact that Hybrid Turkeys is a breeding facility coming under scrutiny and not a typical slaughter production is an important difference. It further extends the argument that at all levels, animal agriculture is incapable of escaping exploitation and cruelty.
CBC’s Marketplace did an interesting piece on Hybrid, called “The Trouble With Turkey.” They’ve featured other MFA investigation footage in the past and offer some excellent followup. At the end of the Hybrid Turkey piece, Marketplace shows a “natural” turkey farmer on Vancouver Island. This natural, free-range, organic model is often presented as an alternative. However the key flaw is that even these free-range farms get their eggs from a breeding facility. The birds still die and have a violent end no matter their quasi-peaceful existance. Furthermore, rounding up any animals for slaughter, (no matter how small the farm) will bring about a chaos and pandemonium that is inherently prone to callousness and cruelty. The day any human can take dozens of lives with calm and care, will be a bleak one indeed. Alternative to cruelty, go fucking vegan.
thanks for posting this. Its a great insight into the comodification of a species which many people choose to ignore.