A sixth suspect accused of abusing turkeys raised for Plainville Farms has pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals charges.
Kevin Lee Wagaman, 50, of Fayetteville, Pennsylvania, entered the plea on August 9 at the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Wagaman’s plea follows guilty pleas from five other suspects. Those include Francisco Lebron-Cruz, Bryiant Perez-Paez, Bryce Washington, Juan Carlos Turi Baeza and Jose Enrique Turi Baeza.
All six men are no longer employed by Plainville Farms.
Each of the six former Plainville Farms workers received sentences of 12 months of supervised probation, and none of them are allowed to hold employment that involves the care of animals.
The court action stems from criminal charges that were filed after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) circulated a video in August 2021. That video depicted scenes of turkeys being thrown, kicked and picked up by their necks.
Charges against seven other former Plainville Farms workers are pending, with those charges filed in multiple counties.
Shortly after the video surfaced, Plainville Farms announced it was cooperating with law enforcement agencies and had launched its own investigation into the matter. The result of that investigation was the termination of 13 employees, as well as the purchase of body cameras for a third-party animal welfare specialist to monitor all live operations by employees.
The company also replaced catching employees with a third-party vendor to provide catching services.
Previously part of Hain Celestial’s Hain Pure Protein segment, Plainville Farms was acquired in 2019 by a newly-formed investor group known as Plainville Brands LLC.
Plainville Farms, according to the WATTPoultry.com Top Poultry Companies Database, processed 90 million pounds of live turkeys during the past year. It ranks as the 15th largest turkey company in the United States.
