Deputies raided the Shannon farm after animal-rights group Mercy for Animals provided a hidden-camera video that showed farm workers beating and stomping on turkeys.
Ronnie Jacobs, 58, of 4475 Rockfish Road, is the last of five workers charged in the case to be convicted. All five also lost their jobs at the farm.
Atrocities inflicted on these animals included:
- Workers violently kicking and stomping on birds, dragging them by their fragile wings and necks, and maliciously throwing turkeys onto the ground or into transport trucks in full view of company management;
- Employees bashing in the heads of live birds with metal bars, leaving many to slowly suffer and die from their injuries;
- Turkeys covered in flies, living in their own waste, with some unable to access food or water and suffering from severe feather loss;
- Birds suffering from serious untreated illnesses and injuries, including open sores, infections, rotting eyes, and broken bones; and
- Severely injured turkeys, unable to stand up or walk, left to die without any veterinary care, because treating sick or injured birds was too costly and time consuming, as the farm manager explained to Mercy For Animal's investigator.
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| Sarah Jean Mason ignored abuse, then tipped off Butterball execs |
Dr. Sarah Mason, director of animal health programs in the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Poultry Division, also pleaded guilty to her role in informing a veterinarian for Butterball that Hoke County prosecutors were reviewing the undercover video.
She was placed on probation for a year.
(WRAL - April 4, 2013)
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