Between 250 – 300 million turkeys are raised for slaughter every year in the U.S. – more than 46 million for Thanksgiving alone.
Turkeys are painfully debeaked and detoed without anesthesia, mutilations that can lead to excessive bleeding, infections and even death.
Turkeys are excluded from the federal Humane Slaughter Act, which requires that animals be stunned prior to slaughter. Even when stunning procedures are used on turkeys, they are rarely monitored or adequate, allowing countless terrified turkeys to move along horrific slaughterhouse disassembly lines while still fully conscious.
This Act needs to be amended to include and prevent the inhumane treatment of turkeys, chickens, pigs, and other livestock.