For those of you who haven't seen the tragic footage inside of a North Carolina Butterball turkey processing plant, I highly recommend watching it. Hard as it is to witness, it is important to see this kind of footage so we understand precisely what we're up against.
The facility, near Fayetteville, has been the scene of some of the most horrific conditions imaginable. Abuse includes dropping baby turkeys alive into meat grinders, throwing them, and mishandling them in various ways.
Predictably, Butterball brought in hired goons with academic credentials - the worst kind of defenders of evil, because they hide behind their expertise to perpetuate injustice - to defend their vile practices. Butterball's Orwellian "Animal Care and Well-Being Advisory Council" (a.k.a., the War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, Violence is Kindness Council) has a group of academics on call who trumpet Butterball's "humane" treatment of animals (and in the process, these folks render the word "humane" completely meaningless).
For the record, their board of "Experts" includes Dr. Temple Grandin (Colorado State University), Dr. Jesse Grimes (North Carolina State University); Dr. Michael Martin (North Carolina State University); Dr. Yvonne Thaxton (University of Arkansas) and Dr. Joy Mench (University of California-Davis).
Apparently, Dr. Mench drew the short straw and stepped forward to defend this ghastly form of assembly-line murder. Said she:
The undercover hatchery video I reviewed did not depict animal mistreatment. As with any operational process, there is always room for learning and improvement, which is why our council encourages Butterball to continue its ongoing associate training programs to ensure top-notch turkey care. (source)That's too sickening even to be a joke. "Top-notch turkey care"??? Are you serious. HELLO: This is a facility where they throw living beings into grinders. I've got a question for Dr. Mench: How would you like to be tossed into a giant grinder that slices and dices and hacks you up into mincemeat? Since you wouldn't characterize that as "mistreatment," I'm sure you would voluntarily take that plunge? What a load of rubbish!
And what has been the response of Butterball and their government supporters in North Carolina? There is now talk about strengthening anti-whistleblower laws even more. Never mind the horror show that is happening inside of the Butterball plant. These lovers of "free enterprise" want to go after animal rights activists who go to work in these plants and film these nightmarish conditions. Why? Because they realize the truth of Paul McCartney's words: "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian."
The men and women who take great risks to film these conditions are the heroes and heroines of our times. They deserve the highest praise possible. They are revealing the truth, despite the efforts of those in power to build the walls higher and thicker, to keep the outside world from seeing their ultra-violent mass extermination machines that are called factories.
This is why I'm back on the blogging circuit. Indefinitely. To keep quiet while this sickening orgy of death is continuing unabated is just too painful. As long as I have a voice, and as long as I can use it, I'm going to speak out against this madness. It is the worst kind of profiteering of all: the kind based on misery, violence and, ultimately, death. Even if speaking out against it does not stop it, we still must do it. Because looking the other way at these crimes is too painful, and too inhumane.
