Shock as Butterball turkeys selling for just $0.25 a pound in Walmart after sex abuse controversy

Butterball turkeys are being sold for as little as just over $3 in Walmart amid a sex 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 abuse inside the company's factory. 

Butterball has hit back to say that the video, which showed workers sitting on turkeys, smacking, humping and sexually abusing the birds at an Arkansas plant, was from 2006.

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

But despite this, Americans have still pulled away from the brand in the run up to the holiday, and some have even been trolling the company's Thanksgiving cooking tips phone line. 

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

A TikTok video posted on Wednesday shows the turkeys going for just $0.25 a pound in an unknown Walmart location - down 80 percent from $1.28 a pound. 

In the video from user Tiffany, who uses the handle @flippymama, the turkeys are priced around $3.50, with one 12lb bird costing just $3.10.

'I have never seen turkeys this cheap,' she says in the video, which has over 1 million views and thousands of comments. 

The video, which was reported on Daily Dot, shows a store refrigerator fully stocked with the unsold turkeys.

'Y'all could be getting some turkeys hella cheap right now over a claim that is over 18 years old,' Tiffany says while filming. 'That's crazy.'

She continued: 'I've never seen turkeys this cheap. That's crazy because these could be going to a family in need.

'This is such a waste.'

Other turkeys from different brands are still selling for a much higher price on Walmart's website. 

For example, a Shady Brook Farms turkey, which is between 10 and 16 lbs, is priced at $19.80 on average. 

While some individual consumer choices may have been influenced by the PETA video, it is not clear how much influence it has had on the market as a whole. 

Turkey sales are down this year, according to Bloomberg, but this is in keeping with a downward trend that has been observed in the market for years. 

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

Now years later, despite those issues being under control, Americans are worried about the cost of food, which is causing a slump in demand. 

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

Butterball has faced a social media frenzy since PETA resurfaced the disturbing footage. 

In the video an undercover investigator claimed he saw a Butterball employee shoving his finger up a turkey's cloaca, or vagina, for 'fun' and witnessed another worker humping a turkey while it was restrained, according to the animal rights group.

He also recalled seeing a 'worker... taunting another worker by holding a bird by the legs and jerking her back and forth.'

Footage included in the video also showed employees manhandling multiple birds - striking, throwing and hanging them to death.

'Do you know what happened to your Butterball turkey before they were killed?' PETA wrote in the caption, without specifying that the content was filmed 18 years ago. 

'The video is not current and was taken prior to Butterball becoming a private company and prior to engagement certification through American Humane,' the company said in response.

'Animal care and well-being is central to who we are as a company and we are committed to the ethical and responsible care of our flocks,' a spokesperson added.