McDonald's Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc. severed ties with a Tennessee poultry farm after an animal-rights group on Thursday released video footage from the facility that showed chickens being stabbed, clubbed and crushed to death.

Mercy For Animals said it documented animal abuse and inhumane conditions at T&S Farms, which the group said supplied chickens to a nearby Tyson processing plant that produced chicken McNuggets and other chicken products for McDonald's.

The video is the latest in a series of exposé s by animal-rights groups that seek to spotlight brutality and poor living conditions for commercially raised poultry and livestock. Such groups push for better treatment of animals and stricter policing of operations by top meat-buying restaurants and food companies.

While the video investigations typically draw swift responses from the targeted companies, the tactics also have drawn pushback from lawmakers in states like Iowa, Missouri and Kansas that have passed laws barring workers from recording undercover videos, backed up with the potential for fines or jail time. Lawmakers also have criticized activists groups for recording animal abuses rather than immediately intervening.

T&S Farms, located in Dukedom, Tenn., didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said the company and Tyson, the top U.S. meatpacker, were investigating the farm and will "reinforce" McDonalds' expectations for animal treatment on farms that supply meat to the fast-food chain.

"We believe treating animals with care and respect is an integral part of a responsible supply chain and find the behavior depicted in this video to be completely unacceptable," she said.

A Tyson spokesman said it had terminated the farm's contract with the meat company. He said animal welfare is a priority for Tyson and that the video showed "inappropriate methods used to euthanize sick and injured chickens."

No Tyson chickens currently are at the T&S facility, he said, and Tyson officials "don't believe this video accurately depicts the treatment of chickens by the thousands of farmers who supply us." Tyson relies on about 4,000 farmers to raise its chickens, which Tyson breeds, hatches, slaughters and processes.

Matt Rice, director of investigations for Mercy for Animals, said his group targeted T&S Farms for an investigation "at random." It sent a member to work there and secretly record conditions over the past month. The group's video showed farm workers using a long stick with a spike on its end to strike chickens, and stepping on birds' heads while pulling on their bodies to break their necks.

"At this Tyson contract farm, chickens were treated like mere meat-producing machines," said Mr. Rice.

He said the group's investigator raised concerns with the farm's owner, and later showed the footage to local law-enforcement officials. Randall McGowan, investigative captain with the Weakley County Sheriff's Office, said officials reviewed the video and gave a copy to the local district attorney, who will decide whether or not to press criminal charges. The prosecutor wasn't immediately available for comment.

McDonald's, the world's largest restaurant company by revenue, has been the target of animal welfare groups before. In 2000, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals waged protests against McDonald's over a practice called forced molting, in which hens near the end of their productive life are deprived of food to jolt them into laying more eggs. McDonald's pressured its egg suppliers to stop that practice.

Mercy For Animals, based in West Hollywood, Calif., previously has targeted a McDonald's supplier. In 2011, the group released footage of an egg supplier that crammed hens into wire cages and other abuses. McDonald's dropped that egg supplier afterward.

Julie Jargon contributed to this article.

Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com

 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 27, 2015 14:15 ET (18:15 GMT)

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