Source: Susan Kelly, MEATINGPLACE, 12/7/17


Tyson Foods issued a strongly worded statement condemning mistreatment of chickens grown for the company that was caught on video and said it terminated its contract with the Virginia farm where the actions took place.

The video was posted on the website of animal rights advocacy group Compassion Over Killing, which said its investigator shot the footage while working undercover inside Atlantic Farm, a Temperanceville, Va., supplier to Tyson.

Doug Ramsey, group president of poultry for Tyson, said 10 employees of the contract catching crew shown in the video have been fired.

“We’re outraged by what’s shown in this video. The actions of these people are egregious, inexcusable and will not be tolerated by Tyson Foods,” Ramsey said in the statement emailed to Meatingplace.

“It’s our responsibility to ensure that everyone who works for and raises animals for our company treats animals properly. Within an hour of seeing this video, we confirmed the location and owner of the farm. We are terminating the contract with the farmer who allowed these actions to take place and are removing any of our birds from his care.”

Justin Whitmore, Tyson’s chief sustainability officer, said a non-negotiable condition of employment or any contract agreement with Tyson is a dedication to treating animals properly.

“The people in this video were trained in proper animal handling, yet chose to ignore their training. They failed to alert management about the treatment on this farm and utterly failed to uphold a simple Tyson Foods core value of treating animals in their care humanely," Whitmore said.

In addition to terminating the farmer’s contract, Tyson said it is taking the following actions:
-- The company will conduct a video conference with live production management at all of its poultry locations, where senior poultry management will stress the company’s cultural commitment to proper animal handling. 
-- Tyson will immediately begin to meet with everyone in its chicken operations who handles live birds to aggressively re-emphasize that every individual who works for the company is responsible for proper animal handling.

The company said its animal well-being audit and training programs already in place include nearly 60 full-time dedicated animal well-being specialists across its beef, pork and poultry operations.

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