Worker dies in accident at Mar-Jac poultry plant

A worker at a Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is dead following an accident that occurred on the evening of May 31.

Roy Graber Headshot
(vmargineanu,BigStock.com)
(vmargineanu,BigStock.com)

A worker at a Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is dead following an accident that occurred on the evening of May 31.

The deceased has been identified as Bobby Butler, 48, Hattiesburg. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Complex manager Joe Colee told the Pine Belt News that Butler was injured while working with heavy machinery in the evisceration department at the plant. However, Colee added that there were no witnesses to the accident.

“As soon as he was discovered, emergency services were summoned and he was transported to the hospital, but did not survive,” Colee said in a statement. “Mar-Jac is working closely with Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state authorities to determine the cause of the accident. We are deeply saddened by this loss, and our heart and prayers go out to the employee’s family and friends.”

This incident is the second fatal incident at the Hattiesburg plant within a seven-month period.

On December 15, 2020, Joel Velasco Toto, 33, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital after an incident in the plant’s battery charging room. A press release issued by the Hattiesburg Police Department (HPD) said an investigation of the situation revealed that “known acquaintances were horse-playing with machinery in the facility.”

Earlier in 2021, a Guatemalan citizen who worked at the Mar-Jac plant in Hattiesburg, pleaded guilty to charges of misusing a Social Security number.

The Hattiesburg poultry plant has been a part of Mar-Jac Poultry’s operations since 2014, when the company acquired the former assets of poultry integrator Marshall Durbin Cos. located in Alabama and Mississippi in 2014. 

According to the WATTPoultry.com Top Companies Database, Mar-Jac Poultry, which also has operations in Georgia, processed 15.88 million pounds of ready-to-cook poultry on a weekly basis in 2020. Mar-Jac Poultry ranks as the 16th largest poultry company in the United States.

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