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Cages were covered with insulated panels to protect turkeys from cold
In 2007, two animal advocacy organizations - Animals' Angels and United Poultry Concerns - called upon the Sara Lee Corporation to cover its trucks taking turkeys to slaughter in freezing weather. Our campaign grew out of an investigation by Animals' Angels on January 25, 2007 when investigators followed a truck loaded with turkeys on the road for four hours to the Sara Lee slaughter plant in Storm Lake, Iowa. The truck was uncovered, exposing the turkeys to bitter cold and icy winds. Snow and ice stuck to the metal transport cages in which the turkeys were huddled.
Upon arrival at the plant, the turkeys sat for another two hours in frigid 16 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures. Evidence of the investigation was presented to Sara Lee with the recommendation to start using tarps or insulated panels to protect the company's turkeys from the cold. UPC and Animals' Angels issued a press release, and our campaign was covered by the Des Moines Register and the Storm Lake Pilot Tribune.
Sara Lee told Animals' Angels and UPC: "Sara Lee and its suppliers use insulated panels on trucks to protect the animals during colder weather." However, insulated panels were not in use during the 2007 investigation. In 2008, UPC and Animals' Angels decided a follow-up investigation was warranted. The aim of the February 2009 investigation was to find out if any improvements had been made. |
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Animals' Angels investigators documented conditions at the plant on February 3-4, 2009. Inside the fenced premises, they saw two barns with open fronts. The sides and the back of these barns were covered with tarps that protected the turkeys - caged in trailers parked inside the barns - from the weather. When the trailers were moved from the barn to the slaughter plant entrance, the turkeys were exposed to the elements for 1-2 minutes.
Weather Protection Barn with tarp covered sides
On all loaded turkey trucks that arrived at the plant the cages were covered with insulated panels. Trucks backed up to the barns, dropped off the trailers with the turkeys inside, picked up empty trailers and left. Threatened with arrest by police for "harassing trucks," Animals' Angels terminated the investigation with intent to file a complaint, noting the investigators weren't illegally interfering, just watching the plant and the trucks.
Loaded turkey truck - cages covered with insulated panels
Based on the observations, it appears Sara Lee has responded to the recommendations of Animals' Angels and UPC, since during the investigators' unannounced visit, significantly improved weather protection was provided for the turkeys slaughtered at the Storm Lake plant on February 3-4, 2009 |
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What Can You Do?
Tell Sara Lee you appreciate the company's apparent response to pleas that it protect its turkeys from exposure to freezing weather by equipping its transport trucks with insulated panels - and closing the panels - enroute to the company's slaughter plant in Storm Lake, Iowa, as documented on February 4, 2009.
Say you are glad that, instead of the turkeys being forced to sit outside the slaughter plant entrance in the freezing cold - as the were forced to do in January 2007 - the turkeys in February 2009 were held in a covered barn.
Urge Sara Lee to adopt a companywide policy at the national and international level requiring that all birds trucked to the company's slaughter plants be afforded protection from cold weather in the form of insulated panels like those observed by investigators in Storm Lake, Iowa in February 2009. Request a written response to your letter.
Contact:
Brenda C. Barnes, Chairman, CEO
Sara Lee Corporation
3500 Lacey Road
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Phone: 630-598-6000
Fax: 630-598-8653
You can also leave a message for Sara Lee at:
www.saralee.com/ContactUs.aspx
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