In 1951, Leo Peters, an employee of the Chicago meat processor Swift and Co., purchased the trademark for "Butterball" from an Ohio woman who had owned it since 1940.

[14] Beginning in late 1981, Butterball has maintained a toll-free telephone line called the Turkey Talk-Line to help customers with cooking and preparation questions.

In The West Wing episode "The Indians in the Lobby", President Josiah Bartlet calls the number (referred to as the "Butterball Hotline" in the script) to discuss stuffing and cooking his Thanksgiving turkey while trying to avoid revealing his identity to the operator (voiced by an uncredited Ana Gasteyer).

In October 2012, a Mercy for Animals investigator documented a pattern of abuse and neglect at numerous Butterball turkey operations in North Carolina.

[24][25] Several days later, another Butterball employee, Rueben Mendoza, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cruelty to animals and felony identity theft.

[26] In February 2013, two more Butterball workers, Terry Johnson and Billy McBride, were found guilty of misdemeanor animal cruelty as a result of MFA's investigation.

Dr. Sarah Jean Mason, the director of Animal Health Programs with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, was arrested and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges after admitting to warning Butterball about the raid by law enforcement and potentially compromising the criminal cruelty investigation.

[28] In November 2024, PETA released a video[29] and an accompanying article where undercover employees detailed numerous animal abuses by workers, including sexual assault to the birds as well as excessive violence.