PETA investigator accuses Butterball workers of sexually abusing turkeys before slaughter

An undercover investigator for the animal rights group PETA says you might want to think twice if you were planning to buy a Butterball brand turkey for Thanksgiving, with shocking revelations of animal abuse, including sexual abuse, at the slaughterhouse.

“When people go to the grocery store and they see Butterball or other turkeys wrapped in plastic, they just don’t know what happens to the birds until they end up in the meat case,” the undercover investigator said in a video posted on PETA’s Instagram page describes the horrors he uncovered after recently infiltrating an unspecified slaughterhouse for Butterball LLC.

“I mean, how could they,” added the man, whose face was hidden behind a shadow.

The investigation revealed a number of disturbing incidents at the facility. Workers were allegedly observed engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with detained turkeys, including groping and assaulting the birds’ cloaca.

The footage also captured other instances of physical abuse, with one employee handling a turkey and another admitting to violently kicking a bird. In a disturbing scene, a worker appeared to be sitting on one of the turkeys.

The undercover investigator even recorded a conversation between himself and a slaughterhouse worker who bragged about abusing one of the turkeys.

“I kicked the f— out of m———-,” the work told the investigator, who responded with: “His f—- eyeball popped out.”

The video is the latest in a long line of blunt campaigns by the animal rights group to get the public to reconsider eating turkey during Thanksgiving, including post billboards nearby elementary schools displaying a bloody and beheaded “hand turkey” cartoon in 2022.

On Monday, PETA plans to take to the streets of Washington, DC ahead of the White House’s Turkish pardon tradition with a “Hell on Wheels” truck with turkey the sound of distressed turkeys wailing in pain blares alongside messages urging people to go vegan.