What are the Butterball Turkey allegations? Employee scandal sparks disbelief in wake of PETA expose

On November 22, PETA released a video exposing alleged animal abuse inside Butterball Turkey, the largest turkey producer in the USA.

Disclaimer: This article has references to s*xual abuse, violence, and exploitation of animals that may upset the readers. Discretion is advised.

In the 49-second Instagram clip, an investigator from the agency shared how he went undercover at one of the manufacturing plants and reportedly witnessed employees of Butterball Turkey s*xually exploiting the birds before they were killed.

“One guy humped a shackled turkey one day, and another time another worker was putting his fingers in a turkey’s cloaca, which is basically her v*gina, while the line was stopped,” the anonymous PETA official shared.

The Instagram post, which was captioned, Do you know what happened to your Butterball turkey before they were killed?” contained disturbing and graphic visuals of the said assault. The PETA investigator who spoke from behind the shadows also claimed that some of the Butterball Turkey employees even “bragged about their abuse.”

For instance, one person allegedly shared, “I kicked the f*ck out of the motherf*cker,” to which the undercover agent replied, “His f*cking eyeball popped out.” One shot even showed a person roughly handling a bird and another individual sitting on a turkey.

In the wake of such an expose, the internet is reacting with disbelief. Here are some of the comments from the social media platform X:

“Ummm. Not sure what to make of this. We have a butter ball in the freezer right now,” a person wrote.

“Bro. What. The. F,” one person wrote.

“I've never been more thankful I didn't buy butterball this year,” wrote another.

Others continued to weigh in.

“Someone please tell me this is a lie. Butterball is the only freaking turkey we ever buy,” a netizen wrote.

“So now we need a new label like tuna has… THIS TURKEY WAS NOT abused… Omg,” another netizen wrote.

“Brisket for Thanksgiving this year,” an individual wrote.

“Nothing is sacred,” another individual wrote.

Elsewhere in the PETA expose video, the undercover investigator shared that when consumers go to grocery stores and see Butterball Turkey or others “wrapped up in plastic,” they often don’t realize what happened to them before they ended up in “meat cases.”

“These dark plants are kept away from main roads and certainly not shown on TV. I went to this Butterball House of Horrors to show people what the company never will,” the investigator mentioned.

The unnamed official added if even a single person saw the video and stopped eating turkeys, then it would be “worth” it. So far, the time and location of the footage remains unclear.

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PETA has made similar allegations against Butterball Turkey in the past

In 2017, PETA made accusations against Butterball Turkey. According to the agency’s article titled, “Was your Thanksgiving turkey s*xually assaulted?” employees at the plant’s Ozark, Arkansas slaughterhouse “punched” the birds, and allegedly attempted to s*xually assault them.

“A PETA eyewitness documented a worker shoving his finger into a turkey’s cloaca (v*gina) for ‘fun’ during a break when the slaughter line was stopped. Another employee grabbed a bird by her legs and jerked her back and forth at a coworker to tease him. The coworker punched her to push her back,” the PETA article mentioned back then.

It further continued:

“A third employee slammed a bird’s head and legs into the slaughter line shackles and rubbed his body against her, pretending to r*pe her while she was immobilized. The workers laughed during each instance.”

The article further shared specific instances from the PETA eyewitness’ log spanning May to June 2017. It mentioned how such s*xual abuse and violence against animals were common.

Apart from Butterball Turkey, PETA also accused Plainville Farms and Aviagen Turkeys Inc. of similar forms of alleged exploitation. Cows, hens, and pigs were also alleged to be victims of animal abuse within the meat industry.