Turkey plant worker sentenced for animal cruelty

Turkey plant worker sentenced for animal cruelty

6/29/2009, 3:26 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
(AP) — LEWISBURG, W.Va. - A worker at a West Virginia turkey plant has been sentenced to a year of home confinement for stomping on a bird's head and slamming another to the ground in abuse caught on video.
Edward Eric Gwinn was also fined $1,000 and ordered to have no contact with domestic animals by a judge in Greenbrier County.
Gwinn and Scott Alvin White were indicted on felony charges in February, but each pleaded guilty to two animal cruelty misdemeanors in April. White was sentenced June 8 to a year in jail but can petition for home confinement. A third man's criminal case is pending.
The men were videotaped last fall by an undercover operative of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals at an Aviagen Turkeys Inc. plant in Lewisburg.

The three men have been fired.