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Confinement: An average of 10,000 - 14,000 turkeys per shed, equating to six birds per square metre. More... -
Mutilation: Surgical procedures including debeaking and toe-cutting without anaesthetic or pain relief. More... -
Artificial lighting: Sleeping and feeding patterns distorted to maximise growth rate. More... -
Genetic alterations: Both male and female turkeys are nearly twice the size of their wild counterparts. More... -
Health concerns: Wounds from overcrowded conditions become smothered in waste, causing painful infections. More... -
Artificial insemination: 'Milked' semen laced with extenders and antibiotics, and syringed into the female turkey. More...
New: Cruelty exposed at major Inghams Abattoir
Inghams Poultry Abattoir 2013: Summary of Incidences.
Confined, Injured, Abused
Factory farmed turkeys spend their entire lives in crowded sheds with thousands of other birds. Three to five million turkeys are currently killed every year in Australia for meat but this number is growing. Turkeys each live in a space the size of an A3 sheet of paper, until they are slaughtered at approximately 10 - 12 weeks (a turkey's natural life span is around 10 years).
In developed countries, more than 95% of commercial turkey production takes place in intensive production systems called factory farms. Turkeys raised in factory farms spend their entire lives (a grand total of three months) in crowded sheds with thousands of other birds. More...
For Australian producers, profits have taken priority over animal welfare, as birds are pushed beyond their physical limits. They are housed in unhealthy and unnatural conditions that induce acute and chronic pain. More...
More about the campaign
The Big Birds, Big Cruelty campaign, launched in 2011 by Animal Liberation ACT, aims to encourage wide scale action to expose and bring to an end the suffering of factory farmed turkeys in Australia.
