As Thanksgiving 2025 approaches, a disturbing video has resurfaced, exposing workers at Butterball and Plainville Farms subjecting turkeys to sexual abuse and severe mistreatment. The footage has reignited outrage across the US, raising serious questions about the practices behind two of the country’s largest turkey producers.
The video, reposted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on their official Facebook page, includes testimony from an anonymous worker alongside graphic footage from undercover investigations. ‘One guy humped a shackled turkey one day,’ the worker alleges. The video first went viral in 2024 and has now surfaced again just days before Thanksgiving, prompting renewed calls for boycotts of both companies.
A Lookback on Documented Abuse at Multiple Facilities
The footage shows incidents at two separate locations. At a Butterball slaughterhouse in Ozark, Arkansas, workers were allegedly filmed engaging in sexual acts with turkeys during a 2006 undercover investigation. The anonymous worker describes further abuse: ‘Another time, another worker was putting his fingers in a turkey’s cloaca, which is basically her vagina,’ referencing events at a Plainville Farms facility in Pennsylvania.
The video highlights that Plainville Farms was certified as ‘Animal Welfare Certified’ at the time of the abuse, raising serious concerns about industry oversight. PETA’s Facebook caption urges viewers to ‘refuse to fund such suffering and skip the turkey’ this holiday season.
Legal Consequences and Industry Accountability
The investigation into Plainville Farms led to unprecedented legal action. Pennsylvania State Police charged 12 former workers with 141 counts of cruelty to animals across six counties, including six felonies—the largest number of charges in any factory-farmed animal case in US history.
So far, 10 workers have been convicted. Francisco Mitchell Lebron-Cruz pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges in June 2023 and again in July 2024, receiving one year of probation for each conviction. During his probation, he is prohibited from working with animals. Another former supervisor, Kevin Lee Wagaman, also pleaded guilty in 2024, along with eight other workers.
The charges stemmed from a 2021 undercover investigation, where PETA’s investigator documented workers stomping on turkeys’ heads, throwing birds by their wings or necks, and one worker simulating sexual acts with a dying turkey before kicking it.
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED.
Industry-Wide Pattern of Abuse
PETA’s resurfaced video suggests that sexual abuse is widespread in the animal farming industry. It shows footage from a pig facility operated by a Hormel supplier, where animals were allegedly ‘viciously assaulted’.
In 2024, Amber Canavan, PETA’s vegan campaigns project manager, told Snopes: ‘We have found that workers will often take out their frustrations or try to impress their coworkers by doing things to the animals. And sometimes those are sexual in nature.’
PETA now contends that practices such as forced manual impregnation—common in the meat, dairy, and egg industries—contribute to a culture where sexual abuse is normalised.
Social Media Reacts as Video Resurfaces
The viral video, first gaining traction in 2024, has returned to social media discussions ahead of Thanksgiving 2025. Facebook users have flooded the post with emotional reactions. One comment read: ‘Horror! Can’t believe what I’m seeing.’ Another lamented: ‘This is difficult to watch as we are confronted with the fact of how evil and depraved some humans are. Animals deserve better than the ugliness we impose upon them.’
The footage from Butterball dates back to a 2006 investigation, which documented workers stomping on a bird’s head until her skull exploded, and swinging a turkey against a metal handrail so violently that her backbone was dislocated. Despite this, Butterball became the first and only turkey producer to receive American Humane certification in 2013, with annual audits and over 200 welfare standards.
From Viral Moment to Boycott Calls
The 2024 viral surge prompted renewed scrutiny of industry certification schemes. Plainville Farms was certified by the Global Animal Partnership at the time of the abuse, exposing gaps in oversight and enforcement.
This resurgence has amplified PETA’s ongoing ‘Hell on Wheels‘ campaign, now active across 30 states. The organisation’s mobile turkey transport truck visits grocery stores to ‘intercept shoppers before they make a purchase they can’t return,’ encouraging consumers to reconsider their holiday choices.
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk commented: ‘Turkeys are devoted parents, purr to their chicks, and change colour to express their feelings. Yet, in the meat industry, they are treated as unfeeling objects.’ She added that the video’s return has energised calls for plant-based alternatives this Thanksgiving.
Originally published on IBTimes UK
