Christmas turkeys, guinea fowl marked as free-range may not be the ‘happy birds’ they are considered to be.

Hidden camera footage of an award-winning farm shows the horrible treatment the birds go through.

The investigation was undertaken by the members of the Animal Justice Project (AJP) at the Pastures Farm Poultry in Northamptonshire. This farm was named a runner-up in the Northamptonshire Food and drinks award 2018-19.

On their website, they have stated that they rear their free-range birds in a natural environment and their barn-eared birds have clean, dry straw daily with lots of space.

“All our processing and butchery is carried out on the farm in our 5-star hygiene-rated butchery, so no food miles there.”

According to them, the footage showed that the turkeys were plucked immediately after their throats were slit. The regulations demand a two minutes gap in between killing and plucking.

The ‘free-range’ label instantly brings to mind the picture of lush greens farms with happy birds twittering around. The video, however, tells a different tale.

The butchers are seen stunning the birds right in front of the others, Chickens are sent down a conveyor belt towards the scalding tank, alive and shackled. The wings, feet, and legs are seen to be moving in the tank. The activists state that the “active struggling” is not the expected reaction of the nervous system still moving after death. Feathers were ripped out from Guinea fowls before they were dead. The birds were sent to the tank while the birds were still conscious.

The free-range regulations are issued by the ‘Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing’, which gives guidance on animal welfare for slaughterhouses, butcher’s yards, small-scale producers and private individuals. These regulations state that poultry must be stunned in electrified water before their throats are cut, to desensitise them to pain. A two minutes gap should be allowed between killing and plucking. This is followed by a hot bath to loosen their feathers.

 All of these regulations are in place to ensure the least amount of discomfort for the birds.

The housing conditions of the birds, as seen in the video, is also not appropriate. The activists from AJP have claimed that the birds’ sheds were “ filthy and dilapidated”, the expected open water facility was also absent.

“This is the horrific face of so-called high-welfare turkey farming – live-plucking, a filthy, blood-drenched kill floor, and the scalding of birds alive.”

“This company supplies farmers’ markets and portrays itself as having high standards, but we say the reality is very different. This investigation blows the lid off the notion that buying free-range from farm shops and markets means happy birds.”  Independent quoted Claire Palmer, an AJP spokeswoman as saying.”

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