Turkeys are debeaked and detoed to offset the disadvantages of over-crowding leading to downgraded carcasses. Toes are amputated without anesthetic. Beaks are amputated with a hot machine blade. Research has shown that the hot blade cuts through the sensitive beak tissue causing lifelong pain and suffering in the mutilated, disfigured bird resembling human phantom limb and stump pain. Modern turkeys are so heavy and misshapen that they must be artificially inseminated to reproduce.
Artificial insemination spreads fowl cholera, a major bacterial disease of domestic turkey.
When they're between 12 and 26 weeks, turkeys are grabbed by catchers and carried by their legs upside down to the transport truck. Jammed in crates they travel for hours without food, water or protection from the weather to the slaughterhouse. There are no United States laws regulating turkey or other poultry transport. They may or may not be stunned, whether by a hand-held stunner or an electrified water bath through which their heads are dragged. Many turkeys receive pre-stun electric shocks.