“Milking” Turkeys

Factory-farmed animals are selectively bred to have characteristics that are commercially profitable. In the case of turkeys, that means breeding birds with a large breast for more meat. But such overbreeding comes at an enormous cost to the animals’ wellbeing.

For turkeys, the extra weight puts pressure on their skeletal systems, causing leg deformities, bone fractures, and lifelong pain. There is no escaping it. The suffering is baked into their DNA. The large breast also means they are unable to mate naturally because they simply cannot get close enough to one another. Instead of taking the pressure off their poor bodies and allowing a more natural existence, the industry employs turkey “milkers”. An operator restrains the birds, sometimes upside down, and holds the male birds’ legs apart while the milker massages the area to collect the semen. If that sounds like sexually molesting an animal, that’s because it absolutely is.