KITCHENER — A Kitchener-based company that produces 60 per cent of the 21 million turkeys raised for food each year in Canada has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty after an undercover video caught workers abusing birds.

Hybrid Turkeys last week admitted it failed to exercise reasonable care and supervision of the euthanasia of animals. The company was fined $5,600.

The Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals charged the company in July 2014 after Mercy for Animals Canada, an animal rights group, shot footage at a Hybrid farm in Bright, about 30 kilometres southwest of Kitchener.

The video shows workers trying to euthanize turkeys by clubbing, kicking, punching and swinging a shovel at them. Some turkeys were "left to suffer with gaping, rotting wounds," Mercy for Animals said.

Charges against five Hybrid employees were dropped.

"This case graphically illustrates the cruel, inhumane and illegal abuses that turkeys and other farmed animals are forced to endure on Canada's factory farms," Mercy for Animals president Nathan Runkle said in a news release on Monday.

"While we praise law enforcement for securing a landmark cruelty conviction in this case of horrific animal abuse, the meagre fine doesn't fit the crime. This factory farm got a slap on the wrist for clubbing animals over the head."

Runkle added that "we must do more to protect animals on factory farms from sickening cruelty."

Connie Mallory, chief inspector with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said standards of care for all animals "apply to everyone, including companies and organizations."

Toronto-based Mercy for Animals said this is the first time a Canadian factory farm has been found guilty of animal cruelty as a result of hidden-camera footage obtained by an animal protection group.

The video, which can be viewed at turkeytorture.ca, was shot by a member of Mercy for Animals who got a job at Hybrid as an egg gatherer.

Mercy for Animals is now calling on the National Farm Animal Care Council, the Canadian agricultural industry organization that establishes codes of practice for producers, to amend the codes to ensure that all sick or injured turkeys get immediate treatment by a veterinarian.

The group also wants the turkey industry to stop breeding birds to grow so fast they become crippled under their own weight and is seeking video monitoring systems in all facilities that handle farmed animals with footage streamed live to the Internet to help prevent abuse.

Animal cruelty charges against five Hybrid employees — three from Kitchener, one from New Hamburg and one from Stratford — were withdrawn "as part of the resolution" of the case, said Alison Cross, spokesperson for the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "The resolution terms are under the discretion of the Crown."

The case was heard in Woodstock because Bright, where the video was shot, is in Oxford County and the county's court is in Woodstock.

Asked to comment on the charges against the workers being dropped, Krista Hiddema, Mercy for Animals' managing director in Canada, said: "Hybrid Turkeys created a culture of cruelty. It is the company that should be held accountable for allowing animal suffering to fester at its factory farm."

Hybrid Turkeys, which Mercy for Animals calls the world's largest primary turkey breeder, had about 200 employees, 50 barns and 11 farms as of last year. The company is owned by Netherlands-based Hendrix Genetics Ltd.

Hybrid said in a statement on Monday it has "a long history of working with producers around the world to provide safe, affordable and nutritious food for consumers. The company has been unwavering in its commitment to the treatment of turkey flocks in its care."

Hybrid added that when it learned of the undercover video, it investigated and co-operated with authorities.

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"Our company has zero tolerance for animal abuse," Hybrid managing director Dave Libertini said in the statement.

"We have a solid record of investment of time and resources into all aspects of animal welfare — including research and advocacy as well as policy, procedures and training. This will continue into the future."

Helen Wojcinski, Hybrid's manager of science and sustainability, said: "As a company, we have used this isolated incident to make our internal programs even stronger. I am proud of the work done in all areas. Animal care and well-being is central to the operations of our company."