It’s National Chicken Month, when the poultry industry bands together in a desperate effort to boost slumping chicken meat sales after grilling season ends. They’ll bombard social media feeds with cooking tips--but what they won’t be talking about is the suffering of billions of birds before they end up in the oven. This September, Compassion Over Killing’s investigator used the opportunity to pen a powerful new piece shining a bright light on Tyson contract factory farms: Read and share TODAY!

Last year, “Alex” worked undercover on a Tyson contract farm, witnessing a grim reality inside its massive warehouse-like sheds: “more than 225,000 birds living in filthy, barren, overcrowded conditions, some unable to walk, others suffering from what look like internal ailments. Some birds were trampling over dead, rotting corpses.”

“Alex” also documented extreme cruelty: birds being slammed, thrown, and run over and crushed to death by forklifts. In response, Tyson cut ties with the farm, and 10 employees were fired.

Yet, as it places blame on low-paid workers and contractors, the nation’s largest chicken producer has refused to acknowledge a cruel source of suffering for the billions of birds it breeds and kills each year: crippling, unnatural rapid growth.

These birds have been turned into “franken-birds,” writes “Alex.” They are bred to grow so unnaturally large, so fast, that they reach slaughter weight when they’re still babies--about 45 days old. Often, their legs crumple under the weight of their own morbidly obese bodies. If humans grew that quickly, we’d be 660 pounds by two months of age!

“Alex” concludes by urging Tyson to end this cruelty--and continue to shift toward compassionate plant protein--if it truly wants to be a food industry leader.

Spread the wingspan of this hard-hitting piece today by reading and sharing! Don’t forget to tag @TysonFoods on social media to make sure the poultry producer hears our voices loud and clear.