Factory farming is an industrial process that applies the philosophy and practices of mass production to animal farming. Except for a few small cases, the turkey business is completely industrialized. Gone are the days of turkeys ranging free in yards pecking at the grass. Instead they spend their entire lives in large windowless sheds with wood shavings on the floor that are never cleaned of wastes. There are usually 10,000 or so birds to a shed with about 3 square feet per bird.
Lighting is kept low to reduce aggression between the closely packed birds.
Foot ulcerations that cause lameness often develop because the birds constantly stand in the wet, dirty litter. Ammonia and other irritating gases rising from this filth cause airborne germs and the air pollution results in respiratory problems. Respiratory diseases such as colibacillosis, fowl cholera, avian influenza, past eurella and turkey coryzasis are responsible for almost half of all death losses - turkeys who don't even make it to slaughter. As in the chicken broiler industry, turkeys are often debeaked which involves slicing off about one third of the beak with a red hot blade when the bird is around five days old. This is done to minimize injury when, due to the lack of space, the birds peck at one another as a result of stress induced aggression.