The images are taken from a Butterball affiliated slaughterhouse in North Carolina.  They show workers kicking the animals, hitting them with sticks, throwing them in walls and other awful abuse.

The videos go further and show footage of abused animals with rotting parts of their bodies.  It shows turkeys with their eyes rotting out and with broken bones.

Mercy for Animals took the footage to local authorities who issued arrest warrants and raided the plant Tuesday morning.

Butterball reacted by issuing a statement that they have a zero tolerance policy for the abuse of the animals and are conducting both their own investigation and one through a third party.

Companies like Butterball are becoming much more sensitive to allegations of abuse at their factories because customers are holding the large agricultural concerns responsible for abuse of animals.  Economists say that there has been a noticeable decrease in the amount of meat being consumed that was raised by large corporate conglomerates.

Allegations of abuse at McDonalds affiliated suppliers has caused the  burger giant to reassess their relationships with egg suppliers and pork suppliers this year.

Would you be less likely to but products form a company like Butterball if you knew there were allegations of abuse against the company?

Here is the Mercy for Animals video that caused the uproar (Warning Graphic!)

[Video] Butterball Not So Appetizing After Abuse Video Surfaces is a post from: The Inquisitr

Butterball, probably the most recognized turkey brand in the US, has kicked into Thanksgiving high-gear with a 24-hour hotline for turkey thawing, cooking and slicing dilemmas that may occur in the middle of the night.

The turkey hotline has been a Butterball feature for nearly 30 years, with calls jumping from 11,000 the first year of operation to 200,000 each Thanksgiving now. (The line is manned with food experts, half of whom hold a Master’s degree in some food-related discipline.) But the advice service for those cooking turkey, something many Americans only do on Thanksgiving, has expanded in recent years to reach out to a more tech-savvy audience.

The staple brand is coaching customers on Twitter, offering tips like using oil instead of butter to brown the bird to avoid burning “milk solids.” Facebook users can also reach Butterball support staff on their page, where wall conversations are currently addressing issues like turkey brining, a practice that has become popular in recent years due to geek cooking icon Alton Brown. (Butterball says brining their turkeys is unnecessary, but offers directions on Facebook to those who wish to brine their turkeys anyway.)

Butterball’s use of social media is a good case study for more established brands to model, as it balances an established identity with effective use of the services very well. Consumerist managed to get a list of the five most absurd questions asked of the turkey experts each year, which was as follows:

*Is it okay to thaw my turkey in the bathtub while bathing my kids?

*Can I brine my turkey in the washing machine?

*Can I use my oven’s self-cleaning cycle to speed up the cooking process?

*If I cut my turkey with a chainsaw will the oil affect the taste?

*Can I take my frozen turkey into my sauna to thaw it faster?

Butterball re-launches 24-hour hotline, Twitter support for confused cooks is a post from: The Inquisitr

After I posted my extensive guide to turkey support outreach in the internet age and how not to die in a fire deep-frying a turkey, another quick Thanksgiving reference came to my attention.

I mentioned the Butterball helpline (1-800-Butterball, which on a cell phone will have to be 1-800-but-terb) but if you don’t want to drop the phone in vat of boiling gravy while trying to hold for help- did you know you can get turkey help on Twitter?

Avid tweeters hosting Thanksgiving this year may want to follow and converse with @Butterball on Twitter. The helpful person or persons manning the customer service account have been tweeting turkey advice all morning to panicked Twitter users in need of a helping tweet:

Turkey still frozen?Quick thaw -place breast side down in lrg container, fill w/cold H2O.Takes 30 mins per lb &change H2O every 30 minutes.

The Turkey Talk-Line will receive more than 10,000 calls today – will you be one? 1-800-BUTTERBALL #Thanksgiving

http://bit.ly/2pnclh @SpendLessTV We recommed cooking it breast side up and covering it 2/3 the way through

RT @acharpen:shotout 2the @butterball operators who take turkey day 2answer all kinds of crazy questions& attempt 2make our kitchens safer.

Happy Thanksgiving! The Turkey Talk-Line is open today from 6-6 CST to answer all your turkey related questions. 1-800-BUTTERBALL.

@xtinar about 4 hours. Check the calculator on butterball.com

@DebJorge we get 4.5-5 hrs at 325 but call 1-800-BUTTERBALL and ask them about the conve oven

@SuzanneBoyd let it rest for about 15 mins

@DelaneyKirk without stuffing 4-4.5 hrs with stuffing 5-5.5 but check out the calc on butterball.com too

@ladybugsgrama if its still frozen get it in a large tub and thaw 30 mins per lbs

Let’s Tweet Turkey? is a post from: The Inquisitr

As technology advances, sometimes it’s the little things that remind us what a pain in the ass some tasks used to be before the internet.

Roasting your first (or 50th) Thanksgiving turkey used to be a bit of a hassle, especially because- let’s face it- turkey kind of sucks and no one ever eats it besides on Thanksgiving unless they’re in Frontierworld in Disneyworld or on some kind of a sad, tasteless diet. No one knows how to thaw a turkey or what turkey cooking times are, much less how to brine a turkey so it doesn’t taste as much like dry sponge.

Nowadays, resources to help you cook your turkey without setting the kitchen on fire or overcooking the outer parts while giving the whole family salmonella abound. Hands down, the best one-stop shop for turkey morons is on Butterball’s site.

Butterball’s Tips section has a handy calculators page to provide specific information based on the amount of guests you’re hosting and tells you what size turkey you’ll need. And based on whether you’re defrosting it in the fridge or in cold water (you’d better get cracking either way), the site lets you know exactly how long that will take.

Interestingly, the site still says it’s okay to stuff a turkey, and even tells you how to brine a turkey- although that takes at least six hours. If you’re too much of a pretentious foodie to listen to Butterball and you enjoy building things before shoving food into your face, you can always check out Alton Brown’s turkey recipe.

Lastly, if you’re too overwhelmed and effing up Thanksgiving for the whole family, bear in mind you can call a real live human at 1-800-BUTTERBALL (1-800-288-8372).

Techie Turkey Tips is a post from: The Inquisitr

Thanksgiving Recipes and Cooking Tips

When you’re hunting down Turkey Day recipes and cooking tips, The Food Network’s Thanksgiving section has everything you need in an easy-to-navigate format. AllRecipes.com also offers searchable recipes to spice up your family’s meal. The most useful service of all, though, may be Butterball’s Turkey Talk-Line. You can call 1-800-BUTTERBALL or e-mail talkline @ butterball.com all day on Thanksgiving to get one-on-one help from a trained expert. You may also want to check out the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service’s turkey preparations tips for some other useful info.

Thanksgiving Word Searches, Puzzles, and Games

There are plenty of options for you to challenge your kids’ brains when it comes to Thanksgiving. Check out About.com’s interactive Thanksgiving Word Search, which lets you play online and rescramble at your will. Parenting site Kaboose.com has several printable word searches and crosswords of varying difficulty levels. More printable puzzles await you at Printables4Kids’ Thanksgiving page. And Vocabulary.com offers both online and printable word searches, crosswords, and puzzles for you to use.

Thanksgiving Trivia and Other Scholastic Activities

Some other online trivia and scholastic activities for Thanksgiving:

• About.com Thanksgiving Trivia page: Plenty of Q&A and fun facts related to the holiday
• The Holiday Spot: Lots of good “did you know” type info for T-Day trivia
• U.S. Census Bureau Thanksgiving 2008 Facts: All the facts and figures you could ever need, courtesy of the Census Bureau
• QuizLand or QuizRocket: Interactive online Thanksgiving trivia games
• NASA’s Out of This World Thanksgiving: See how astronauts celebrate Thanksgiving from space
• Thanksgiving at the White House: Learn all about and watch the official White House Thanksgiving ceremony and annual turkey pardoning

Thanksgiving Quotes

Trying to find the right way to sum up the special weekend? Try any number of these quote sites for some well-spoken lines about the significance of Thanksgiving.

• The Quote Garden
• About.com Thanksgiving Quotes
• Humorous Thanksgiving Quotes
• The Holiday Spot Thanksgiving Quotes
• BrainyQuote Thanksgiving Quotes

The History of Thanksgiving

You won’t find a more detailed view of Thanksgiving history than what’s been prepared at The History Channel’s History of Thanksgiving. There, you can see videos, timelines, and explanations of all sorts of T-Day traditions past and present. The Encyclopedia Smithsonian also has a great profile about the first Thanksgiving celebration.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

What would Thanksgiving be without the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Coverage of this year’s parade starts at 9 a.m. Thursday (regardless of your time zone) on NBC. Performers include Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Diana DeGarmo, Gloria Estefan, Hall & Oates, the cast of Disney Channel’s High School Musical, Jonas Brothers, Barry Manilow, and Sarah McLachlan. You can find all sorts of info about the parade at the official Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade site, as well as at NBC’s Macy’s Parade page.

Thanksgiving Travel

Holiday travel doesn’t have to be hellish. Here are some good places to make sure your weekend plans don’t go haywire:

• FAA Air Traffic Control System: Find delays and issues at airports across the country
• TSA Travel Tips: The Transportation Security Administration’s latest list of what you need to know before hitting the friendly skies
• FareCompare’s Holiday Travel Checklist: Some good things to consider before starting your trip
• FareCompare: Interactive interface to help you find cheap last-minute flights
• Fodor’s Thanksgiving Travel Guide: More last-minute travel tips for the Thanksgiving holiday
• America’s Favorite Cities: See which destinations are going to be the most crowded for the holiday weekend

Other Online Thanksgiving Resources

• 10 Easy Ways to Find Black Friday Deals Online: Our own list of the Internet’s hottest resources for finding Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on the Web
• Support the Troops: Official government-sponsored ways for you to connect with troops overseas for the holiday
• Public Service and Volunteerism: The government’s list of foundations for Thanksgiving donations and volunteer efforts

Happy surfing, and have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

The Ultimate Thanksgiving Resource List: Recipes, Puzzles, Parades, and More is a post from: The Inquisitr

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