Willet Dairy Investigation by Mercy For Animals

Investigation released to the public on 26 January 2010

Far from leading the carefree lives portrayed in the dairy industry's "happy cow" commercials, the vast majority of cows used for dairy production today lead lives of deprivation, confinement, painful mutilations and cruel handling. These curious and intelligent animals are denied access to open pasture and treated as mere milk-producing machines - forced to live on manure-coated concrete floors in overcrowded sheds.

A new Mercy For Animals investigation is pulling back the curtains on the largest dairy factory farm in New York State – Willet Dairy in Locke. In early 2009 an MFA undercover investigator worked at the mega-dairy, secretly documenting egregious acts of animal cruelty, including neglect, with a hidden camera.

Evidence gathered during the investigation reveals:

• Cows with bloody open wounds, prolapsed uteruses, pus-filled infections, and swollen joints, apparently left to suffer without veterinary care
• "Downed" cows – those too sick or injured to even stand – left to suffer for weeks before dying or being killed
• Workers hitting, kicking, punching, and electric-shocking cows and calves
• Calves having their horns burned off without painkillers, as a worker shoved his fingers into the calves' eyes to restrain them
• Calves having their tails cut off - a painful practice opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association
• Newborn calves forcibly dragged away from their mothers by their legs, causing emotional distress to both mother and calf
• Cows living in overcrowded sheds on manure-coated concrete flooring
• Workers injecting cows with a controversial bovine growth hormone, used to increase milk production

In a joint statement, internationally renowned experts, including Dr. Bernard Rollin, an expert witness on animal welfare issues in the U.S. and abroad, and Dr. Temple Grandin, a world-renowned cattle welfare expert and advisor to the USDA, compared the conditions documented at Willet to the infamous Hallmark slaughterhouse, where undercover video exposing abuse of downed cows resulted in the largest beef recall in US history. They state, "This dairy presents at least as bad a picture of the industry as does Hallmark."

New York veterinarian, Dr. Holly Cheever, bluntly stated, "[I]t is my professional opinion that the environment that this dairy provides as well as its cattle-handling techniques are improper, unhygienic, dangerous, and inhumane."

Despite the overwhelming evidence that the dairy operation repeatedly violated New York's animal cruelty laws, which was meticulously compiled by Mercy For Animals and presented to the Cayuga County District Attorney, the law enforcement agency refuses to uphold the state's laws to protect animals - allowing abuse to continue at Willet, unchecked.

Sadly, the inhumane conditions uncovered at this factory farm are not isolated. Whether raised for meat, dairy or eggs, animals used in food production are frequently subjected to appalling confinement, mutilations, brutal handling and slaughter. Because agribusiness values profit over ethical principles, cruelty to animals continues to run rampant on factory farms.

Thankfully, compassionate consumers can choose to withdraw their support of these abusive industries by adopting a vegan diet. Each time we eat we can choose kindness over cruelty.

Media coverage:

Los Angeles Times

ABC News

ABC News - Blog

Syracuse.com

This Dish Is Vegetarian

Food Consumer

Yahoo
Huffington Post

Forbes.com

New York Times

Video:

UPDATE RELEASED BY EMAIL ON 04 FEBRUARY 2010

Dear Friend,

There has been some major fall-out from Mercy For Animals' New York dairy farm investigation that could change state law, prevent cruelty to thousands of animals and open the hearts and minds of millions of Americans to the plight of dairy cows!

After reviewing MFA's investigation, New York State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal proposed a ban on tail docking - A.09732 - similar to one that was enacted in California last year.

Tail docking, which involves cutting off the ends of calves' tails - severing through sensitive skin, nerves and bone without any painkillers - is among the most disturbing practices MFA's undercover investigator captured on film at Willet Dairy - New York's largest dairy mega-farm.

Although the American Veterinary Medical Association condemns tail docking as painful and unnecesary and cutting off the tails of horses has been illegal in New York for decades, it remains common practice in the dairy industry.

MFA's release of cruelty footage at Willet Dairy has also led to Leprino Foods, a Denver-based cheese producer, dropping Willet as a milk supplier. Leprino distributes cheese to the three largest pizza companies in the United States - Pizza Hut, Dominos and Papa John's.

Perhaps most importantly, this investigation has brought to light the issue of animal cruelty within the dairy industry to millions of Americans for the first time.

Shocking images of inhumane dairy industry practices have aired on ABC's World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer and Nightline, CNN, and hundreds of newspapers, radio and television news networks from coast-to-coast featured the investigation, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and Forbes.

The extensive media coverage has prompted many consumers to ditch dairy - boycotting the cruelty inflicted upon dairy cows.

Activists film cruelty to ducks at foie gras plant

From Canada.com

"(10 July 2007) - Global Action Network, a Montreal-based animal welfare group, is set to unveil secret footage cataloguing animal cruelty at Canada's largest foie gras producer tomorrow.

The video was compiled between November 2006 and February 2007 by a volunteer at the organization who infiltrated Elevages Perigord in St. Louis de Gonzague, about 55 kilometres southwest of Montreal, while working undercover at the farm.

It shows employees wrapping ducks and ducklings deemed too small to gavage - the force-feeding process that fattens the ducks liver for consumption, in garbage bags and hitting them against the wall, or stomping on them in order to break their necks, said Andrew Plumbly, the director of Global Action Network, this afternoon.

Although the footage does not directly implicate the farm's owners, Plumbly says their investigator's testimony shows that management at Elevages Perigord, a subsidiary of French-owned Excel Development, are aware of the cruel acts employees at the farm practice against the ducks.

Management at Elevages Perigord have thus far been unavailable for comment.

As the popularity of foie gras has soared amongst foodies and non-foodies alike, so has the condemnation. The practice of gavaging, in which up to one kilogram of food is shoveled through a metal tube down a duck's throat in one sitting, is called especially cruel by animal welfare groups.

Several countries in Europe have banned the production and sale of the fatty duck liver including Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy and Poland. Last year, Chicago followed suite and by 2012, the sale and production of foie gras will be illegal in the state of California.

Quebec is a large producer of foie gras and its industry produces 8500 duck livers a week.

The Global Action Network handed over their evidence to police Friday and the Surete du Quebec is currently investigating. In order for animal cruelty to be proved under Canadian law, the crown prosecutor must prove that the employees and management at Elevages Perigord intended to be cruel."

Country View Family Farms – Pennsylvania, 2009

"A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation reveals unconscionable cruelty to mother pigs and their young piglets at a Hatfield Quality Meat supplier - "Country View Family Farms," in Fannettsburg, Pennsylvania. The hidden camera video provides consumers with a jarring glimpse into the nightmarish world of factory pork production.

MFA's investigation uncovered:

Workers grabbing piglets by their fragile ears or legs and throwing them across the room and slamming them into transport carts.

Workers tattooing sows by repeatedly driving sharp metal spikes into their flesh.

Sows with untreated rectal prolapses and deep, infected sores and scrapes from constant rubbing against the bars of their stalls.

Workers cutting off piglets' tails with dull pliers and castrating them by ripping out their testes with their bare hands - all without anesthesia.

Thousands of pregnant pigs confined in two-feet wide metal stalls so small that they could only take one step forward or backward and could not turn around or lie down comfortably.

Injured, sick and runt piglets being tossed into overcrowded gassing kill carts, slowly suffocating from CO2.

Workers firing steel rods into sows' heads, sometimes as many as four separate times, before the sows fell and died.

Numerous veterinarians and animal welfare experts have harshly condemned the conditions documented at this "family farm" - which confines nearly 3,000 breeding sows. Dr. Nedim C. Buyukmihci, Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, asserts, "I can state unequivocally that the pigs in this facility suffered immensely...These people showed complete disregard for the welfare or well-being on the pigs."

The findings of MFA's newest investigation are consistent with those documented at pig farms across the country in recent years - illustrating that animal neglect and abuse are the pork industry norm, not the exception.

Not only are the abuses documented at this facility standard within the industry, they are legal in the state of Pennsylvania. Like most states, Pennsylvania's anti-cruelty statute exempts farmed animals from legal protection. Pigs, like all farmed animals, also lack federal protection during their lives confined on factory farms.

As consumers we can choose compassion over cruelty at every meal. Adopting a compassionate vegan diet is the most powerful action we can take to put an end to needless animal suffering and the conditions documented during this investigation.

Three workers suspended and CCTV installed in organic abattoir following cruelty allegations

Press release

Three slaughtermen have been suspended from a Soil Association-approved abattoir following an undercover investigation by Animal Aid that reveals what the government regulatory body, the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS), describes as ‘clear evidence of breaches of animal welfare legislation’.

The national campaign group’s footage of pigs and sheep being killed was shot secretly between October 19 and November 3 at Tom Lang Ltd, in Ashburton, Devon. The evidence was handed to the MHS. The film shows animals being kicked, slapped and thrown; improperly stunned; and even decapitated while they may still have been alive.

In a formal response to Animal Aid, the MHS has said that, as well as the suspension of the three workers, the plant operator has now installed CCTV ‘to record the slaughtering process’. This is in line with Animal Aid’s key campaign objective to see the compulsory introduction of CCTV in all British abattoirs and for the footage obtained to be periodically reviewed by an independent panel. The MHS has also announced that ‘evidence to support a potential prosecution of [T Lang’s] slaughterhouse operator and slaughterers is being collated’.

The Soil Association, which insists that it upholds the highest welfare standards, has suspended Lang from its scheme as a result of Animal Aid's evidence.

The Lang investigation is published less than four months after the release of 40 hours of Animal Aid footage shot secretly at three mainstream, non-organic abattoirs. That earlier footage showed ewes being stunned while baby lambs still suckled at their teats – as well as pigs and sheep being kicked, shoved and dragged. A slaughterman at one of the abattoirs – AC Hopkins, in Taunton, Somerset – faces prosecution under the animal welfare legislation.

Animal Aid declared at the time of publication of footage from those three abattoirs that it ‘convincingly disposes of the myth of stress- and pain-free humane slaughter’, given that the abattoirs in which filming took place were randomly selected. Tom Lang Ltd was also randomly selected for investigation, with a view to discovering how much better animals fare in a typical Soil Association-approved abattoir that produces organic meat. The new footage reveals that animals are at risk of random violence and practices that increase their pain and fear, whatever the system of killing.

Says Animal Aid Head of Campaigns, Kate Fowler:

‘The public is encouraged to believe that animals are killed in a humane, competent and considerate manner in mainstream British slaughterhouses. Our detailed secret filming over recent months in four establishments presents an unprecedented record of the horrors that are the everyday norm. We see animals subjected to random violence and incompetent practices that have clearly dismayed and alarmed the official industry regulatory body. That we should see such scenes in a Soil Association-approved abattoir will be especially distressing for those who expected better from such establishments. The evidence we have been accumulating points to a simple truth: the production and killing of animals for meat is an ugly, violent, business – however the final product is labelled. At the very least, CCTV must be installed in all British abattoirs so that some light is shone on the process. That won’t end the suffering but it could reduce it.’

Related media coverage:

Daily Mail (12/January/2010)

Think going organic lets you eat meat with a clear conscience? This shocking investigation into a 'humane' slaughterhouse will make you think again

By Danny Penman
Last updated at 9:29 AM on 12th January 2010

The Vale of Ashburton has long been regarded as an idyllic corner of rural Devon. Groups of ramblers clamber over muddy stiles, while farmers round up their cattle ready for the afternoon's milking.

The view from the slopes of nearby Rippon Tor is perfect - so perfect in fact, that local artists do a thriving trade in watercolours of the vale.

The serenity is only enhanced by the sound of sheep calling to each other across the hillsides as they chew on the lush grass.

But every now and again, if you listen carefully, you can hear other animal sounds, ones that shatter this bucolic vision. The sounds are of terrified animals as they are herded into an abattoir in the valley below before being systematically killed.

The owner of the slaughterhouse in question is a man named Tom Lang, and he is proud of the fact his establishment is certified by the Soil Association for the 'humane slaughter' of organically reared animals.

But thanks to a Mail investigation, that certificate was suspended last month, after staff at the abattoir were filmed inflicting appalling cruelty on pigs and sheep.

We obtained video footage that shows workers routinely flouting both the Soil Association's organic rules and The Welfare of Animals (Slaughter and Killing) Regulations 1995. We discovered pigs and sheep being beaten and, even more horrifyingly, animals having their throats slit without being adequately stunned first.

Animal Aid, a national welfare group, planted secret cameras inside the slaughterhouse and shot 40 hours of footage over a two-week period.

This particular slaughterhouse was chosen not because it was one of the worst in Britain, but because it was assumed to be one of the best - certified with the gold standard of the organic industry that sets so much store by the way animals are raised and killed.

The camera footage shows trailer-loads of cattle, sheep and pigs arriving throughout the day at Tom Lang's abattoir near Ashburton.

Scores of animals are crammed into these trucks, and on their arrival they are chased out of the vans by men wielding sticks. To strike the animals causes them undue stress and is against the regulations for organically reared animals.

Once inside the abattoir, our pictures show pigs being beaten as they're herded around the complex. We also found several cases of animals having their throats slit without adequate stunning, again against regulations.

In one scene, a group of terrified pigs are herded into a 'knocking pen' where they are kicked and beaten by a slaughterman before being stunned with electric tongs.

One pig tries to escape, running hither and thither, frantically trying to climb the walls of the pen.

One shaven-headed man stands out for his brutality. He kicks, punches, knees and bashes a pig with steel stunning tongs no fewer than 20 times. The creature can be heard screaming as the blows rain down upon it.

At one stage, a slaughterman appears bored of stunning the animals with the electric tongs and reaches for a bolt gun instead. This is a different method of stunning the animals.

He shoots a sheep in the head. The animal falls on to its side and struggles to get up - its legs frantically pawing at the air.

Welfare rules state that an animal should be killed or 'stuck' - by having its throat slit - within 15 seconds of being stunned.

If there is any delay before the animal is 'stuck' it will start regaining consciousness. On countless occasions, these rules were flouted. One sheep was stunned and left hanging upside down for at least 50 seconds.

The creature was left dangling by a hind leg, and can be seen gradually starting to move again. First, its front legs start twitching, then the animal becomes increasingly frantic before the slaughterman stabs it in the neck.

Jason Aldiss, President of the Veterinary Public Health Association, says: 'Every animal should be stuck within 15 seconds. After this time, there's a great risk that an animal will start to regain consciousness.'

In fact, one of the sheep there was left for more than 50 seconds.

Stephen Wotton, a vet from Bristol University specialising in the welfare of animals at slaughter, says such scenes are wholly unacceptable.

'After 50 seconds the animal is very likely to have regained consciousness.'

Sure enough, on the video from Tom Lang's abattoir, on many occasions sheep can be seen pawing at the air after they are 'stuck', suggesting they are conscious as they bleed out (the technical term for slitting the throat).

Mr Wotton says: 'If an animal starts to regain consciousness, then you should immediately re-stun it. It's an important part of the slaughtering procedure and should be standard practice in any slaughterhouse.'

Such brutality and casual indifference to suffering should not be seen inside any slaughterhouse, and certainly not in one certified by the Soil Association - a charity campaigning for organic food and farming which claims to have strict rules for the humane slaughter of animals.

It says: 'It is worth remembering the peace of mind that Soil Association certification buys you. It means that any animals involved in producing your foodstuffs have enjoyed the highest standards of welfare.'

It is the job of the Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) to police Britain's slaughterhouses. They have a vet with responsibility for every abattoir to ensure that all animals are dispatched in a humane fashion. When the MHS was shown the footage from the Tom Lang slaughterhouse, it sent a team of vets to visit the plant.

Steve McGrath, MHS chief executive, says: 'We acted quickly when we saw these pictures of animal cruelty. We suspended three slaughterers immediately and we're collating evidence to support a potential prosecution of the slaughterhouse operator and slaughterers.

'Slaughtermen tell you they'll run you over with a truck'

'We were all shocked by what we saw in the footage. There's consensus throughout the Meat Hygiene Service on that.

'Senior MHS vets have also visited Tom Lang personally and we have put additional staff into the slaughterhouse on a temporary basis to ensure that standards of slaughtering are acceptable. Our on-site official veterinarian is also making additional random checks on slaughtering.'

Stephen Lomax, spokesman for Tom Lang Ltd, claims they were unaware of the breaches until the MHS brought it to their attention. He says the abattoir owners were 'absolutely mortified' by the scenes filmed in their slaughterhouse.

'We're disappointed that all of our staff were not operating to their usual high standard,' says Mr Lomax.

'We're responsible for our own staff, but questions have to be raised about the Meat Hygiene Service. There was an MHS vet in place when these incidents took place. It's a pity that they never drew them to our attention.'

For its part, the MHS says that the abattoir's owners have a clear legal responsibility for every welfare breach that occurs.

'That's why abattoirs are prosecuted when they break the law,' says MHS chief executive Mr McGrath.

The disturbing footage in the video from this Devon abattoir will leave many people wondering whether the same brutality is practised in slaughterhouses across the country - on animals raised both organically and non-organically.

Inspectors are powerless to enforce the law

Certainly, the figures for breaches in animal welfare laws make for disturbing reading.

The MHS has prosecuted 33 abattoirs and slaughterers over the past three years.

They have also ordered 166 slaughterhouses to tighten up their procedures on 455 separate occasions over the same period. That equates to three serious breaches every single week.

Given that most animal slaughtering probably occurs out of sight of a MHS inspector, that's a grim toll indeed. But even these figures may be just the tip of the iceberg. One inspector who recently left the industry told me that they are often powerless to enforce the law, even if they see routine breaches.

He said: 'If you become rigorous about enforcing the rules the slaughtermen become very aggressive. They tell you bluntly that if you're too keen, they will simply run over you with a truck or push you into a machine, but it would look like an accident.

'I wasn't prepared to take the risk, and left the industry. Many of my colleagues stayed behind and turned a blind eye.'

This may seem like an extreme claim, but even the MHS admits that the slaughterhouse can often be a 'confrontational environment' for its inspectors.

'High welfare' assurance schemes that seek to placate concerned consumers, such as the RSPCA's Freedom Food and the Soil Association's organic label, claim to offer an alternative. Animals reared under these schemes are presumed to live a happy life and die a swift and humane death.

Yet the RSPCA's Freedom Food scheme - which applies to meat sold in many supermarkets - is in many ways indistinguishable from factory farming.

For example, it still allows chickens to be reared in huge intensive broiler sheds.

Flocks of 30,000 are not uncommon. And the example of Tom Lang's abattoir, which was approved by the Soil Association, shows that even the coveted 'organic' logo may not be a guarantee of cruelty-free meat.

The Soil Association's standards undoubtedly offer the best welfare for animals on British farms, but this investigation raises obvious questions about whether it is fundamentally any better for animals when they reach the slaughterhouse.

David Peace, managing director of the Soil Association's certification division, says they will investigate further.

'Our position is always that all animals, organic or not, should be slaughtered humanely and with dignity,' says Mr Peace.

'Our inspectors carry out rigorous annual inspections of certified abattoirs and a number of unannounced spot-checks. But it is the day-to-day role of the Meat Hygiene Service to ensure animal health and welfare regulations are followed.'

Animal Aid is now calling for an overhaul of the way slaughterhouses operate.

The group's director, Andrew Tyler, says: 'Slaughtermen need to be assessed to make sure that they are fit and proper people for the job. They should not have convictions for violent crimes or for cruelty to animals. In addition, all abattoirs should be fitted with CCTV so that the slaughterers know that they are being watched and have to abide by the rules.'

Perhaps footage like this will encourage a serious reassessment of the way animals are dispatched in Britain.

It should also serve as a wake-up call for all those shoppers who insist on buying organic meat - at a considerable premium - to ensure they are eating an animal which has been treated humanely from 'field to plate'.

Increasingly, it seems, that simply isn't the case.

Undercover video from Tom Lang Ltd Abattoir (December 2009)

Undercover video from Tom Lang Ltd Abattoir from Animal Aid on Vimeo.