Shock as Butterball turkeys sell for just $0.25 a pound after sexual abuse controversy at Walmart

Butterball turkeys are selling for just over $3 in Walmart amid a sexual abuse controversy over an unearthed video.

Customers have boycotted the brand in the run-up to Thanksgiving after PETA released a shocking video showing animal cruelty at the company’s factory.

Butterball has pushed back, saying the video dates back to 2006 and showed workers sitting on turkeys beating, humping and sexually abusing the birds at a plant in Arkansas.

That was years before American Humane privatized and certified Butterball, the company said.

Yet Americans have still distanced themselves from the brand in the lead-up to the holiday, with some even scouring the company’s phone line for Thanksgiving cooking tips.

And now birds from the company, which is the largest producer of turkey products in the United States, are being sold at a huge discount in some stores.

A TikTok video posted Wednesday shows the turkeys being sold at an undisclosed Walmart location for just $0.25 per pound — 80 percent less than $1.28 per pound.

In the video by user Tiffany, who uses the pseudonym @flippymama, the turkeys cost around $3.50, with a 12-pound bird costing just $3.10.

“I’ve never seen turkeys so cheap,” she says in the video, which has over 1 million views and thousands of comments.

A TikTok video posted Wednesday shows the turkeys being sold at an undisclosed Walmart location for just 25 cents a pound — 80 percent less than $1.28 a pound

The video, reported on Daily Dot, shows a store refrigerator filled with unsold turkeys.

“You could get some turkeys pretty darn cheap right now on an 18+ claim,” Tiffany says during filming. “This is crazy.”

She continued, “I’ve never seen turkeys so cheap.” That’s crazy because these could go to a family in need.

“This is such a waste.”

Other turkeys from different brands are still sold at a much higher price on Walmart’s website.

For example, a Shady Brook Farms turkey that weighs between 10 and 16 pounds averages $19.80.

While some individual consumer decisions were influenced by the PETA video, it is not clear what impact it had on the overall market.

According to Bloomberg, sales in Turkey are down this year, but this is in line with a downward trend seen in the market for years.

In 2020, turkey sales struggled as large gatherings were discouraged during the Covid-19 pandemic and an outbreak of bird flu in 2022 killed millions of turkeys.

Now, years later, even though these problems are under control, Americans are worried about food prices that are causing a decline in demand.

Pew Research shows that three-quarters of Americans are very concerned about the prices of food and consumer goods.

Butterball turkeys are selling for just over $3 in Walmart amid a sexual abuse controversy over an unearthed video

In the video by user Tiffany, who goes by the username @flippymama, the turkeys cost about $3.50

Other brands of turkeys of similar size sell for an average of $19.80

Since PETA resurfaced the disturbing footage, Butterball has been experiencing an uproar on social media.

In the video According to the animal rights group, an undercover agent claimed he saw a Butterball employee insert his finger into a turkey’s cloaca, or vagina, for “fun,” and he saw another worker bang a tied-up turkey.

He also recalled seeing a “worker taunting another worker by holding a bird by the legs and jerking it back and forth.”

Footage included in the video also showed staff mistreating several birds – beating them, throwing them and hanging them to death.

“Do you know what happened to your Butterball turkey before it was killed?” PETA wrote in the caption, without elaborating that the content was filmed 18 years ago.

“The video is not current and was recorded before Butterball became a private company and before the commitment was certified by American Humane,” the company responded.

“Animal care and welfare are central to us as a company and we are committed to caring for our herds ethically and responsibly,” a spokesperson added.