PETA pushing Hormel on humane turkey slaughter
US - An animal rights group that owns stock in Hormel Foods Corp. is trying to pressure the nation's largest turkey processor to adopt a more humane method of slaughtering the birds: cutting off their air supply.People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Hormel to use a technique that "puts the birds to sleep" rather than the current method, in which turkeys are hung upside down and stunned in electrically charged water before their throats are slit.
PETA has placed a shareholder resolution on the agenda for Hormel's January 31 shareholders meeting.
The resolution calls on the Hormel board of directors to issue a report to shareholders by next July on the feasibility of controlled atmosphere killing, or CAK, a process through which the birds are put to sleep with an inert gas such as nitrogen or argon.
Hormel, based in Austin, Minn., says three of its four plants use a similar technique, controlled atmosphere stunning, that renders the turkeys unconscious prior to slaughter.
The company asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to omit the PETA resolution. The SEC denied that request on Nov. 10.
Source: AgriNews
25 November 2005
1 minute read
