Behind the pretty colors of our packaging lies a most disturbing truth: turkeys raised in Quebec are often crammed by the thousands inside gigantic farms. The result? A system designed for profit, where the individual needs of each animal cannot be respected, and where they all too often experience horror, agony and death.

Our investigation shows images captured in two turkey farms in Montérégie and Lanaudière, taken by whistleblowers. These images are so abominable that one can hardly look at them. They illustrate the many problems too often experienced by turkeys in Quebec, unfortunately typical of intensive farms:

• Many birds suffer from wounds, infections and open sores.

• Many birds display stereotyped behaviors, such as pecking or cannibalism, which are the result of captivity, stress, lack of stimulation and frustration.

• Birds are often found dead and in an advanced state of decomposition.

• A turkey is struck repeatedly with a stick to kill them, and is then left for dead while they are still moving.

• Hard floors and unsanitary bedding cause paw injuries and ulcers.

• Turkeys suffer from deformities and chronic pain due to the artificial selection they have undergone to put on weight more quickly.

Unfortunately, these problems are not new; for decades, the livestock industry has been seeking to increase profits at the expense of animals in Quebec, and responds to the demand by ever-expanding farms. According to industry figures, the number of turkeys raised in Quebec has risen from around 6 million in 1974 to almost 9 million in 2023. Over the same period, the number of farms has fallen by around 15%. But the codes of practice written to regulate these large farms and authorize their densities and practices were then written…by the industry, in a flagrant conflict of interest.

The result: squalid buildings where animals, with no contact with the outside world, are crammed together by the thousands to live lives of misery before being sent to slaughter. Employees forced to masturbate turkeys in order to reproduce more quickly and reliably, and subjected to increasingly intense workloads. Consumers who are shamelessly lied to every day by marketing campaigns that are totally out of touch with reality. Everyone loses, but the horror only accelerates.