A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation takes you b ehind the closed doors of one of the country's largest poultry slaughterhouses ? House of Raeford Farms, Inc. in Raeford, North Carolina. In January and February of 2007 an MFA investigator worked in the "live-hang" area of the plant (where live birds are snapped into shackles on the slaughter line), secretly filming egregious acts of animal cruelty with a hidden camera. Shocking abuses he witnessed include:

- Turkeys with broken wings and legs, bloody open wounds, tumors and other untreated injures being slaughtered for human consumption
- A worker violently punching live, shackled turkeys for "fun"
- Employees forcefully shoving their hands into the cloacae (vaginal cavities) of live chickens
- Turkeys and chickens being thrown across the facility and up into the air
- Workers ripping the heads off live turkeys
- Birds being crushed to death under the wheels of trucks
- Conscious turkeys having their throats slit

     As such, MFA is seeking felony cruelty-to-animals charges against House of Raeford Farms, Inc. for violating North Carolina animal cruelty statutes. On May 18, 2007 MFA furnished the Hoke County prosecutor with a criminal complaint containing affidavits and video footage documenting slaughterhouse workers violently punching, throwing, and ripping the heads off of live animals, as well as testimony from world-renowned animal welfare scientists attesting to the pain inflicted on birds at the facility.

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