Tyson Announces Slaughterhouse Closures to Cut Costs

Tyson Foods has always been eager to slaughter animals, but now, several of the company’s own facilities are on the chopping block. To cut costs amid plummeting profits and slowing demand, Tyson—a long-time subject at the center of damning undercover cruelty investigations, federal probes, and a child labor scandal—is resorting to a string of slaughterhouse closures and corporate layoffs.

Since spring 2023, the company has announced the closure of eight of its plants, including ones in Jacksonville, Florida, and Columbia, South Carolina, which were shut down in January 2024. The announcement came in the days after consumers reported finding pieces of metal in Tyson products. Four other plants—in Arkansas, Indiana, and Missouri—will be closed in early 2024. 

Will Tyson Foods Get Its Comeuppance?

Tyson Foods’ steady drop in profits may be a result of compassionate consumers who don’t want to support the abuse and cruel slaughter of sensitive animals. The company kills more than 2 billion animals every year, holding a grim track record of egregious slaughterhouse violations.

In 2021, federal officials reported that chickens drowned in scalding-hot water at multiple Tyson slaughterhouses. At one facility, an inspector saw shackled chickens with broken necks. At another, inspectors found a bird who had been crushed and suffocated in a wire cage. In 2022, equipment mutilated pigs at a Tyson Foods facility in Waterloo, Iowa. The machinery caught one pig’s snout, killing the animal, and severely broke the others’ back legs. And in July 2023, approximately 3,200 chickens died when a trailer crashed at a Tyson Foods slaughterhouse in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

Tyson is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor following reports that migrant children as young as 13 have been working in hazardous occupations at the company’s plants.

PETA Memorializes Birds Who Have Suffered at Tyson Foods’ Facilities

Following the closure of a Tyson meat-processing plant in Jacksonville, Florida, PETA applied to place a statue of an injured chicken in the area, memorializing the countless chickens and other animals who are killed for their flesh every day. The thought-provoking piece serves as a reminder that our fellow animals feel pain and fear just as humans do and don’t belong on our plates.

Send a Message to Tyson by Going Vegan

If you want to help chickens and other animals suffering on farms and at slaughterhouses, put your money where your mouth is and go vegan, which spares nearly 200 animals per year and sends a message to companies like Tyson that consumers want delicious vegan food—not flesh.

It’s time for Tyson to stop slaughtering our fellow animals and to focus exclusively on producing vegan foods—like the plant-powered nuggets, burgers, sausages, and other products offered through its vegan brand, Raised & Rooted.