Weakley County Farm Owners Charged With Animal Cruelty
DRESDEN, Tenn. (AP) — The owners of a A former McDonald’s chicken supplier in Tennessee has been charged with animal cruelty, according to court documents filed Thursday after an undercover video caught them abusing the birds.
According to an affidavit in the General Sessions Court of Weakley County, T&S Poultry owners Thomas and Suzanne Blassingame are accused of “stabbing them with a large spike attached to a pole and failing to promptly and properly euthanize the chickens.”
The incident occurred between July 28 and August 23 in Dukedom, Tennessee, an unincorporated community in both Graves County, Kentucky, and Weakley County, Tennessee, that straddles the state line in the western part of both states.
The video was shot by the advocacy group Mercy For Animals, which turned the footage over to the Weakley County Sheriff’s Department.
The farm supplied birds for McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets.
McDonald’s as well as Tyson Foods have since severed ties with the farm.
