Boy, 16, died avoidable death at notorious Mississippi chicken slaughterhouse after being sucked into deboning machine: Two other workers have died in accidents there since 2019

A chicken slaughterhouse in Mississippi placed a child in a “preventable, dangerous situation,” the Department of Labor has concluded — after the death of a 16-year-old who was sucked into a chicken deboning plant.

Duvan Perez was cleaning equipment at Mar-Jac Poultry’s Hattiesburg plant on July 14, 2023, when he was pulled into the rotating shaft of a machine and suffered fatal injuries.

Perez, originally from Guatemala, had been hired by a recruitment company to work at the slaughterhouse, despite it being illegal for under-18s to work in a meat processing plant.

His death sparked widespread outrage, and on Wednesday the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – a division of the Department of Labor – released their report, which found a litany of errors and recommended a fine of $212,646.

They also pointed to two previous deaths at the company’s facilities since 2020, accusing the company of complacency and recklessness.

The Hattiesburg facility is owned by Mar-Jac Poultry of Gainesville, Georgia

“After the fatal incident in May 2021, Mar-Jac Poultry should have maintained strict safety standards at its facility,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Kurt Petermeyer.

“Only about two years later, nothing has changed and the company continues to treat employee safety as an afterthought, putting employees at risk.

“No employee should be placed in an avoidable, dangerous situation, let alone a child.”

Petermeyer’s team found that supervisors at the plant did not ensure that workers followed proper procedures to turn off the machine and prevent it from inadvertently starting during cleaning.

They found that Perez’s death was very similar to that of 48-year-old Bobby Butler, who died at the plant in May 2021.

“Mar-Jac Poultry is aware of how dangerous the machines they use can be if safety standards are not in place to prevent serious injury and death,” Petermeyer said.

“The company’s inaction directly led to this terrible tragedy, leaving many to mourn the avoidable death of this child.”

A third man, 33-year-old Joel Velasco Toto, was murdered at the slaughterhouse in December 2020.

OSHA found 17 safety violations in their latest report, 14 of which were classified as serious.

Neither Mar-Jac nor their vice president of operations, Joel Williams, have commented on the OSHA findings, but in July, after the teen’s death, the Georgia-based company said Perez provided a fake ID to to indicate that he was of legal age to work in the slaughterhouse.

Joel Williams, the vice president of Mar-Jac Poultry, headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia

The 70-year-old company, headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia, with offices in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, said they were working to ensure safety standards for their employees.

Mar-Jac said they would “never knowingly endanger any employee, especially a minor,” and that they “deeply regret that a minor individual was hired without (their) knowledge.”

Larry Stine, an attorney for Mar-Jac, previously told NBC News that Mar-Jac’s internal investigation revealed no wrongdoing on the company’s part.

“Mar-Jac thoroughly investigated the accident and found no errors committed by its safety or HR personnel,” Stine said.

“It has learned many lessons from the accident and has taken aggressive action to prevent another accident from happening or from hiring underage workers.”

Mar-Jac now has fifteen days to pay the fine and comply, or contest the findings.

In Butler’s case, Mar-Jac disputed OSHA’s findings. In Toto’s 2020 case, the company settled informally.