McDonald's has cut ties with one of its chicken suppliers after an animal rights group obtained gruesome video footage that appears to show operators of the Tennessee poultry farm clubbing small and sickly birds to death.
In the video, which Mercy For Animals released Wednesday, a person said to be an employee of T&S Farm in Dukedom, Tennessee is shown beating chickens using a stick with a large spike attached to the end. Sick and crippled chickens are also shown throughout the nearly three-minute video.
The graphic video, which was viewed by USA TODAY, also shows the workers standing on the birds heads and pulling their bodies to break their necks.
Mercy for Animals also says their investigator found that the birds were bred to grow so quickly that they became crippled by their own weight and often died from organ failure. The group also claims that the birds are crammed into sheds where they live in their own waste before being trucked on to the slaughterhouse.
The farm is a contractor for the mega poultry producer Tyson Foods which supplies chicken for McDonald’s, which is the second biggest purchaser of poultry in the USA.
"This is sickening animal abuse no company with morals should support," Mercy For Animals President Nathan Runkle said in a statement. "McDonald's has not only the power, but also the ethical responsibility to end the worst forms of cruelty to animals in its supply chain."
McDonald's said in a statement that the company supports Tyson's decision.
"We believe treating animals with care and respect is an integral part of a responsible supply chain and find the behavior depicted in this video to be completely unacceptable," the statement said.
The release of the video comes as McDonald's has sought to bolster the reputation of its food amid slumping sales.
Watch the footage below. But be careful: the content is brutal.
