Tyson: no Mercy for Animals

Farmed

Rescued

The 8 August 2015 edition of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette chose to ignore a protest directed at Tyson Foods Headquarters in Springdale the day before. Members of Mercy for Animals, an international advocacy organization, delivered 150,000 signed petitions demanding a stop to the sadistic practices that are the modus operandi of Tyson’s and their contract “growers.”

Predictably, the quiet, civil demonstrators were not even allowed inside the lobby where any Tom, Dick, and animal butcherer may enter.

The same newspaper edition’s Business & Farm page boasted “Tyson leader earns $5.7M in stock sales.” A factoid like, “For every dollar John Tyson pockets, 374 chicken necks are slashed,” might interest some readers but such statistics are taboo in Tysonlandia. (I use the Spanish suffix advisedly given the fact that 27,000 people – many undocumented and with nothing to lose – work at killing chickens while transforming Springdale into a soulless  denuded, trashy town like the places they left behind.)

“Blood money” takes on a new meaning when we learn how Tyson earns his. The New York Times reports that 41 million chickens, 391,000 pigs, and 135,000 steer and heifers succumb to Tyson’s rapacity every week.  Tyson is the most prolific killer in history.

The death rate, in fact, accelerates as processing-line speeds are geared to increase from 140 to 170 birds per minute. In this infernal process, Tyson breaks not only all the rules of cruelty to animals, but also of environmental pollution, hiring of illegal slave-labor, coercive campaign contributions, and much more, all of which is blithely ignored by the local media.  They and most Arkansas institutions and businesses are beholden to and understandably afraid of Lord John.

It’s a feudal system in which a meek press shields their benefactors from cricism, such as protestors delivered at the sanctum’s gate. Protestors who have videotaped hours and hours of the raw, relentless, unbearable everyday horror of  slaughterhouses, now renamed “processing plants,” where living beings are tortured and serially killed 24/7.

Should you wonder about the facts surrounding the buffalo wings, the bacon, or the hamburger on your plate, read “The Meat Racket” by Christopher Leonard, a book about Tyson. For Truth aficionados I also recommend “Dominion” by Matthew Scully and “Meatonomics” by David Robinson Simon. See also the film “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” by Kip Andersen.

If the Truth doesn’t cure you of eating living beings, do apply for a job at Tyson Foods, the world’s largest meat factory, where having no scruples leads to management positions.