AR-News: Urgent Action Alert: Sadistic Cruelty Alleged at a Tyson Slaughterhouse

[GK]

Urgent Action Alert: Sadistic Cruelty Alleged at a Tyson Slaughterhouse

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently filed a complaint with
Polk County, Arkansas, officials based on chilling testimony of alleged
animal abuse at a Tyson Foods, Inc., chicken slaughterhouse in Grannis. An
ex-employee of the plant, Virgil Butler, who had worked on the kill floor
for more than five years, contacted us to provide a written, eyewitness
account of horrifying incidents that occurred on a routine basis, often
involving plant management, including conscious birds who were intentionally
scalded in the scald tank to facilitate feather removal, blown apart by
dry-ice bombs, and manually ripped apart and stomped on as well as having
their legs broken in order to fit them into shackles that were too small.

The Polk County prosecuting attorney will reportedly be receiving the
sheriff’s report on the allegations soon and will decide whether or not to
file charges. Please contact him and politely ask that he look carefully
into all potential corroborators to the incidents and ultimately decide to
file cruelty-to-animals charges against all those responsible at the Tyson
facility in Grannis. Remind him that chickens are covered under the state’s
statutes and that such acts must not go unpunished:

The Honorable Tim Williamson, Prosecuting Attorney
Polk County Prosecutor’s Office
P.O. Drawer 109, 600 Port Arthur St.
Mena, AR 71953
479-394-6114
479-394-6173 (fax)
prosecutor18west at aol.com


To learn more about this issue and to see Mr. Butler’s full statement,
please visit our Web site at www.GoVeg.com/tyson.html.

Please also forward this to as many sympathetic people as you know. The
chickens need all the calls, letters, and faxes that we can muster. Should
you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me at
757-622-7382, extension 1492. Please also copy your letter to me via e-mail
at CemA at peta.org. Thanks again for everything that you do for animals.

Kind regards,



Cem Akin, Research Associate
Research & Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals