Giving a cluck: Animal activists hold demonstration at Harris Teeter to protest Tyson Foods [Updated]

If you popped into the Harris Teeter on Merrimon Avenue for lunch earlier today, you might have been surprised to see a 7-foot-tall bloodied and battered chicken with some passionate activists in tow hanging around outside.

Animal rights activists with the group Mercy For Animals held a demonstration in front of the grocery store in North Asheville during lunchtime hours in protest of Tyson Foods, which supplies poultry products to Harris Teeter.

The protest is part of a multicity series of rallies organized by Mercy For Animals, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring farm animals are raised and processed in an ethical, humane manner and environment.

Wednesday’s protest was held in response to the recent release of footage from a Tyson Foods-contracted farm in Dagsboro, Del., taken with a hidden camera. The video, which can be viewed at tysontorturesanimals.com, depicts graphic scenes of Tyson workers clubbing birds and slitting their throats as well as cramped, filthy living conditions for chickens and footage documenting genetic engineering which opponents say leads many chickens to grow too fast for their bodies, contributing to rampant heart and organ failure.

“Chickens at Tyson Foods are treated as mere meat producing machines,” says Jeni Haines, national campaign coordinator with Mercy For Animals. “From the day they are born until they are violently killed, they are denied everything natural to them and their short lives are filled with misery and deprivation.”

Mercy For Animals claims that during the time spent filming at the facility, 52,000 birds died in little over a month due to illness and injury.

“At Tyson Foods, hundreds of thousands of birds are crammed into filthy, windowless sheds where they are forced to live in their own waste and toxic fumes,” says Haines, who became involved with Mercy For Animals about eight years ago after learning about the conditions at many factory farms. “Birds are bred to grow so fast that they collapse under their own body weight,” she adds. “This is sickening abuse that no company with morals should support.”

Today’s protest featured “Abby the Abused Chicken,” a seven foot tall caricature complete with broken wings, open wounds and a slit throat, meant to illustrate the abuse Mercy For Animals says Tyson Foods inflicts on its poultry. Protesters will also bore signs calling for Harris Teeter and other national grocery chains to demand that Tyson improve its facility conditions and the quality of life of its animals.

According to Haines, there is currently no federal protection for chickens under the 1958 Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, even though chickens make up more than 95 percent of the animals killed for food each year in the United States.

“Every year, billions of birds are slaughtered in ways that would be illegal if the victims were cows or pigs,” says Haines. “Tyson Foods is allowed to literally torture millions of chickens in ways that could warrant felony-level animal cruelty charges in most states if even one dog or cat were the victim instead.”

Haines adds that consumers have the right to know how their food is produced and treated, so they can make informed decisions based on that information.

In response to allegations made in the film and by protesters, Tyson spokesperson Worth Sparkman says, “Animal well-being is a priority at Tyson Foods and has been for many years. We have programs and policies in place to protect the health and welfare of all our animals.”

Sparkman points to programs like the Tyson Farmcheck, in which the poultry producer brings in third-party auditors to its facilities to inspect animal living conditions, animals’ access to food and water and worker training.

In response to the video released by Mercy For Animals, Sparkman admits that “the video is difficult to watch.” However, he contends that the undercover footage lacks context: “At the time it was shot this past spring, this particular farm had birds that were sick with a respiratory illness. As a result, what was shown is not typical for this or any other farm.”

Sparkman adds that workers at the farm have also been retrained on proper bird-handling techniques, in response to some of the footage revealed by Mercy For Animals.

Tyson is the world’s largest producer of meat and poultry products, earning an estimated gross income of 2.84 billion dollars in 2014. In response to the release of the hidden camera footage, national food providers like Walmart, Nestlé and Starbucks have all adopted stricter animal welfare policies in regards to their suppliers.

From here, Haines says that Mercy For Animals demonstrators will continue on to Greensboro and Raliegh to hold similar protests. She urges concerned consumers and residents to visit tysontortureschickens.com, watch the undercover video and sign the online petition urging Tyson to adopt animal welfare policy changes.

For more information on Mercy For Animals, planned protests, and other animal rights related activity, check out mercyforanimals.org. For more information on Tyson Foods, the company’s suppliers and how Tyson is responding to allegations, visit tyson.com.

See Mercy for Animal’s hidden camera footage from Tyson’s factory farm here [WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT].