text: Published on Aug 11, 2016 
   
   Help end this abuse: http://cok.net/tyson. A Compassion Over Killing investigator worked inside several Tyson facilities in Virginia. This footage offers a shocking, never-before-seen look behind the closed doors of chicken breeding factory farms, known as “broiler breeder” farms. ||||| This video from Compassion Over Killing alleges mistreatment of chickens at a Tyson's chicken (Compassion Over Killing) 
   
   This video from Compassion Over Killing alleges mistreatment of chickens at a Tyson's chicken (Compassion Over Killing) 
   
   An animal rights group has released graphic video that appears to show the mistreatment of chickens by Tyson Foods employees in Virginia, leading to at least two Animal Control investigations. 
   
   Compassion Over Killing, a Washington-based animal-advocacy organization, said the video was taken by an undercover investigator for the group in May and June at four facilities where Tyson employees process chickens. The video depicts Tyson employees throwing, punching and kicking chickens as well as sticking plastic rods through their beaks in a process known as “boning.” 
   
   Workers also wrung birds’ necks, ran over them with forklifts and left injured birds in “dead piles,” as the video’s narrator put it, to die. 
   
   One worker, discussing standing on a chicken’s head and letting it suffocate, mentioned that the behavior would look bad if caught on tape. 
   
   “You can’t let nobody see you do that,” the man said, describing the act as “inhumane.” “A stranger . . . you don’t know if he’s working for the Animal Rights.” 
   
   Compassion Over Killing, which says it “focuses on cruelty to animals in agriculture and promotes vegetarian eating,” has undertaken undercover investigations before. On Wednesday, it condemned the workers’ behavior. 
   
   [“That one was definitely alive”: An undercover video at one of the nation’s biggest pork processors] 
   
   “This level of violence and abuse is so egregious, it violates Virginia state animal protection laws,” Erica Meier, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “The company should be held accountable — and consumers deserve to know the truth about the horrors inflicted upon these animals.” She added: “Tyson, the titan of this industry, is literally crushing the life out of birds.” 
   
   In a statement, Tyson, the largest chicken-processing company in the United States, called the behavior “inexcusable” and said that it fired 10 people who were members of the crew depicted in the video. 
   
   The company also said it discontinued the process of “boning” — which it described as “a historical way the industry has used to keep males from eating food intended for females” — at two of the facilities in the video after its release. The process had already been ended at its other facilities in the United States, the company said. 
   
   “I’m disgusted and outraged by what’s shown in this video,” Christine Daugherty, vice president of sustainable food production for Tyson Foods, said in a statement. “We do not tolerate animal abuse. . . . The people shown in the video by Compassion Over Killing were all trained in proper animal handling, yet chose to ignore it and failed to alert management about the despicable treatment on these farms.” 
   
   Daugherty added: “Animals in our care deserve to be treated humanely.” 
   
   Two of the facilities shown in the video are in Virginia’s Mecklenburg County, one is in Buckingham County and one is in Lunenburg County. Animal Control officials in Mecklenburg and Buckingham counties confirmed that they were investigating the allegations but said they couldn’t comment further. An Animal Control official in Lunenburg County did not return a request for comment. 
   
   The Compassion Over Killing employee, who filmed the video while working undercover at Tyson, said the company’s processing facilities are part of a system that desensitizes people to suffering. 
   
   “They are not building a system to ensure animal welfare is a top priority. Or employee welfare,” said the worker, who asked to remain anonymous. 
   
   News of the mistreatment comes weeks after Perdue, the nation’s third-largest chicken producer, announced plans to kill chickens using carbon dioxide or argon gas — a method some hailed as more humane. 
   
   [This could be the start to a whole new world of chicken] 
   
   Compassion Over Killing questioned whether there is any way to humanely kill and eat animals. 
   
   “The best way we can protect chickens and all animals is simply to leave them off our plates,” the video’s narrator says. ||||| CLOSE Animal advocacy group Compassion Over Killing presents an undercover investigation into cruelty at Tyson Foods chicken farms. Video courtesy of Compassion Over Killing 
   
   In this Jan. 29, 2006, file photo, a car passes in front of a Tyson Foods Inc., sign at Tyson headquarters in Springdale, Ark. (Photo: APRIL L BROWN, AP) 
   
   In the face of new allegations of ghastly animal abuse by its employees, Tyson Foods says it's retraining all of its live poultry workers on the company's animal welfare policies. 
   
   The move by one of the world's largest meat producers came as the animal rights group Compassion Over Killing released secretly-recorded footage on Thursday that shows Tyson workers stomping, kicking and suffocating breeder chickens at facilities in three Virginia counties. Tyson says it has fired ten workers who can be seen in the video, and a senior company executive, Christine Daugherty, described the employees' actions as "disgusting." 
   
   “The people shown in the video by Compassion Over Killing were all trained in proper animal handling, yet chose to ignore it and failed to alert management about the despicable treatment on these farms,” said Daugherty, vice president of sustainable food production for Tyson Foods. “Animals in our care deserve to be treated humanely. It’s our responsibility to ensure that everyone who works for our company behaves properly. Our management team is dedicated to continue fostering a culture of proper animal handling.” 
   
   The latest video marks at least the fifth time in roughly 13 months that advocates for various animal rights groups have been able to infiltrate Tyson-connected facilities and secretly record footage of workers abusing chickens and cramped living conditions for chickens before they are slaughtered. The activists typically apply for work at the facilities and are able to surreptitiously record the footage. 
   
   In the video released Thursday, a Tyson worker is caught on tape warning the undercover investigator that "you can't let nobody see you do that" as he stepped on a chicken's head, suffocating it. 
   
   "You don't know if he's working for the animal rights," the worker says. "It is inhumane standing on his head and let them suffocate. They'll take you to court for that." 
   
   The footage also shows workers punching, kicking and roughly tossing birds. 
   
   In the past, the company has responded to the abuse seen in such videos as inexcusable, while stressing that the abusers were not reflective of Tyson’s institutional commitment to animal welfare. 
   
   But with the latest video, Tyson said in a statement, “we believe we haven’t gone far enough and must do more to stop this inexcusable behavior.” The company, which made more than $10 billion in poultry sales last year, says it is now evaluating further steps it can take to ensure animal well-being procedures are being followed throughout its operations. 
   
   The new video has also spurred Tyson to discontinue the practice of inserting plastic tubes in rooster's beaks, something known as beak modification, that helps chicken growers prevent males from eating females' feed. 
   
   Compassion Over Killing, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., said it recently made formal complaints about the abuse to prosecutors and animal control officers in Mecklenburg, Lunenburg and Buckingham counties. No charges had been filed as of Wednesday. 
   
   "We believe that Tyson as a company needs to be held accountable," Erica Meier, the group’s executive director, told USA TODAY. “This is too common of a problem being documented for Tyson's to be pushing this aside as a few rogue workers or bad apples. This is a systemic problem.” 
   
   Worth Sparkman, a Tyson spokesman, said the company has also been in touch with local authorities about the video, but declined to say whether the company wants to see the employees charged. 
   
   He said that the retraining will impact hundreds of Tyson’s employees working in live chicken production. 
   
   Tyson said in a statement that it has begun meeting with every employee in its chicken operations that handles live birds “to aggressively re-emphasize the importance of proper animal handling and the consequences of not complying with the company’s animal welfare policies.” 
   
   The company also said it conducted a video conference on Thursday in which Tyson's senior management will discuss handling of live birds with managers at the company’s facilities. 
   
   "We take animal well-being very seriously, and we are going to get to the bottom of this," Daugherty said. 
   
   Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad 
   
   Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2bhE4i4
target: – Chicken giant Tyson Foods says it will retrain all of its workers who deal with live birds after an animal rights group released hidden footage from within its facilities on Wednesday, USA Today reports. According to the Washington Post, the video from Compassion Over Killing shows workers choking, punching, and kicking chickens, plus running them over with forklifts and leaving them in piles to die. One worker in the video says it's "inhumane" to kill a chicken by stepping on its head while he kills a chicken by stepping on its head. Tyson calls the behavior "inexcusable" and says it fired 10 employees at the Virginia facilities shown in the video. Animal rights activists have infiltrated Tyson Foods to film such videos at least five times in a little over a year.