New MFA Investigation: Ohio Dairy Farm Brutality

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"Chilling undercover footage recorded during a new Mercy For Animals investigation exposes dairy farm workers sadistically abusing cows and young calves."

Captured on hidden camera, the shocking scenes of abuse reveal a culture of cruelty at Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City, Ohio. During a four-week investigation between April and May, MFA's investigator documented farm workers:

• Violently punching young calves in the face, body slamming them to the ground, and pulling and throwing them by their ears
• Routinely using pitchforks to stab cows in the face, legs and stomach
• Kicking "downed" cows (those too injured to stand) in the face and neck - abuse carried out and encouraged by the farm's owner
• Maliciously beating restrained cows in the face with crowbars - some attacks involving over 40 blows to the head
• Twisting cows' tails until the bones snapped
• Punching cows' udders
• Bragging about stabbing, dragging, shooting, breaking bones, and beating cows and calves to death

After viewing the footage, Dr. Bernard Rollin, distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University, stated: "This is probably the most gratuitous, sustained, sadistic animal abuse I have ever seen. The video depicts calculated, deliberate cruelty, based not on momentary rage but on taking pleasure through causing pain to cows and calves who are defenseless."

Immediately upon completion of the investigation, Mercy For Animals contacted the City Prosecutor's Office of Marysville regarding the ongoing pattern of abuse at Conklin Dairy Farms. MFA is pushing for employees of the facility to be criminally prosecuted for violating Ohio's animal cruelty laws.

The deplorable conditions uncovered at Conklin Dairy Farms highlight the reality that animal agriculture is incapable of self-regulation and that meaningful federal and state laws must be implemented and strengthened to prevent egregious cruelty to farmed animals.

Although many of the abuses documented at Conklin Dairy Farms are sadistic in nature, numerous MFA undercover investigations at dairy farms, pig farms, egg farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses have revealed that violence and abuse to farmed animals - whether malicious or institutionalized - runs rampant nationwide.

Compassionate consumers can end their direct financial support of farmed animal abuse by rejecting dairy, and other animal products, and adopting a vegan diet.

PETA: Kate Winslet Exposes Foie Gras Cruelty

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Perez Hilton
Ecorazzi
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Times

New Investigations by The HSUS Reveal Appalling Animal Abuse at Four Egg Factory Farms

PRESS RELEASE 

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Humane Society of the United States released results of its latest investigation into industrial agribusiness and exposed rampant abuse at the top levels of the egg industry in America. An undercover investigator documented extreme and unacceptable conditions at four different factory farms, owned by two of the nation's largest egg producers. There are about 10 million birds at the facilities that were investigated, with one facility having 18 structures each confining approximately 300,000 birds.

In February and March 2010, an HSUS investigator worked inside Rose Acre Farms and Rembrandt Enterprises, the nation's second- and third-largest egg producers. Working at four of these companies' Iowa factory egg farms, the investigator documented appalling abuses.

"Our investigation is a deeply troubling indictment of the battery cage egg industry in America, specifically implicating two of its top three egg producers," stated Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "Misery and suffering are standard at these facilities, and this investigation reveals that animals simply cannot be properly cared for in facilities of this size and type. There is a cage-free alternative, and switching to it should be a minimum moral imperative for the industry."

Rose Acre Farms

An HSUS investigator was employed at Rose Acre Farms for 15 days during February, working at three facilities in Winterset, Stuart and Guthrie Center, Iowa. These factory farms confine nearly 4 million egg-laying hens and about 1 million young hens (pullets). The investigator documented the following abuses:

Broken bones: Workers roughly yank pullets from their cages in growing sheds and load them into cages for transport to battery cages, resulting in a mass of twisted bodies.

Cruel, extremely rough handling: The HSUS investigator videotaped workers pulling young hens from the mobile cages and stuffing them into battery cages.

Cruel depopulation methods: The HSUS investigator documented workers grabbing hens by their legs, then cramming them into gassing carts where they're killed with carbon dioxide.

Prolapsed uteruses: Hens suffer from "blow-outs" that go unnoticed and untreated.

Trapped birds unable to reach food and water: Battery cages can trap hens by their wings, necks, legs and feet in the wire, causing other birds to trample the weakened animals, usually resulting in a slow, painful death.

High mortality in layer and pullet sheds: The HSUS investigator pulled dead young hens, some of them mummified and rotting for weeks, from cages every day.

Failure to maintain manure pits: According to one worker, the manure pit under a pullet shed had not been cleaned in two years. Workers claimed that some hens are blinded from ammonia.

Abandoned hens: Some hens manage to escape from their cages and fall into manure pits.

Rembrandt Enterprises

An HSUS investigator also worked for 10 days during March at a Rembrandt Enterprises, Inc., factory farm in Thompson, Iowa, which confines nearly 5.5 million laying hens. The investigator documented the following abuses:

Injuries from overcrowding: Rembrandt confines six to seven hens in each battery cage. Smaller or weaker hens are often trampled by others.

Trapped hens: Hens' wings, necks, legs and feet become entangled in cage wires, often resulting in trampling, as well as death by starvation and dehydration.

Broken bones: Workers sometimes slam battery cage doors shut on birds' wings, legs and necks, causing broken bones.

High mortality: During his first two days on the job, the HSUS investigator pulled scores of decomposed and mummified hen carcasses that were obviously weeks old.

Eye and beak infections: The HSUS investigator videotaped hens with abscesses that caused their eyes to close and beaks and mouths to swell.

Prolapses: The HSUS investigator pulled many dead hens from cages who had obviously suffered uterine prolapses. One live hen's prolapse became caught in the cage floor.

Failure to euthanize: Sick and injured hens were often put back into their cages instead of being euthanized.

Abandoned hens: The HSUS investigator found starving hens in manure pits.

Lengthy transport: Rembrandt does not kill "spent" hens on site but rather trucks them to a Minnesota slaughter plant. As a result, the birds are violently yanked from their battery cages, confined in mobile cages, and trucked to the plant.

The HSUS also released a new report detailing the problems inherent in cage confinement of laying hens and the importance of the national movement toward cage-free production systems.

Facts

Many major food retailers are moving away from battery cage eggs. For example, Hellmann's is converting to 100 percent cage-free eggs in its mayonnaise, and all Wal-Mart's private line eggs are cage-free.

Michigan and California have passed laws to outlaw cages for laying hens.

U.S. factory farms confine about 280 million hens in barren battery cages so small, they can't spread their wings. Extensive scientific research confirms this causes suffering.

Cage-free hens generally have two to three times more space per bird than caged hens. Cage-free hens may not be able to go outside and may have parts of their beaks cut off, but they can walk, spread their wings and lay their eggs in nests—all behaviors permanently denied to hens crammed into battery cages.

Broadcast quality B-roll is available for media download here. Still photos are available by request.

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LA Times
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Suffering, Death at Petland Animal Supplier Revealed in PETA Sting

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PRESS RELEASE:

Authorities Descend on Massive Georgia Animal Warehouse That Supplies Stores Nationwide

For Immediate Release:

April 22, 2010

Contact:

Daphna Nachminovitch 757-622-7382

Chillicothe, Ohio -- This morning, law-enforcement officials entered the Atlanta warehouse of Sun Pet Ltd., a company that supplies small mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and other animals to stores nationwide, including Chillicothe-based retailer Petland. Today's action was prompted by evidence gathered during a three-month PETA investigation, which documented that animals at Sun Pet were cruelly killed, abusively handled, and forced to live in severely crowded, filthy conditions. PETA's investigator worked at Sun Pet for three months and never once saw anyone from Petland's corporate office inspecting Sun Pet's facility. The following incidents were among the findings of PETA's investigation:

* A worker put hamsters in a plastic bag and bashed the animals against a table.

* Unsalable animals were routinely gassed in a filthy, waste-encrusted glass tank or poisoned at bait stations that were placed around the facility's warehouse.

* Petland stores shipped sick and injured animals back to Sun Pet without providing veterinary care or food and water, causing many to suffer and die.

* Sun Pet bought thousands of animals from unlicensed vendors, even though the U.S. Department of Agriculture had warned it about such purchases.

* Sun Pet sold hamsters who were purchased from U.S. Global Exotics (USGE), a company from which more than 26,000 cruelly treated animals were recently seized by authorities following a PETA investigation.

"PETA's investigation shows that for Petland, it is business as usual to keep buying animals from companies that have a record of abuse and failure to provide veterinary care to sick and injured animals," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "At these facilities, animals are treated like disposable objects, and no thought is given to the fact that they are living beings."

PETA has turned evidence over to local, state, and federal law-enforcement agencies for investigation, and the group is calling on Petland to end the sale of animals in its stores.

For more information and to view the video footage, please visit PETA.org.

Media coverage:

Atlanta Journal Constitution

11alive.com

My Fox Atlanta

WSBTV

Compassion in World Farming's investigation into pig farming in six EU Member States

Released: 21 January 2010

PRESS RELEASE

"Compassion in World Farming has been filming undercover in Europe’s pig farms for 18 months. What we found was shocking – an apparent disregard for pig welfare law and political failure to enforce it. Failure to comply with important welfare legislation puts Europe’s pigs at risk of profound suffering.

This graphic footage, released at a press conference in Brussels on 21 January 2010, is intended to raise awareness of this scandal with the European public.

Following our press launch in Brussels, the scandal of Europe's illegal pig farms has received coverage in over 11 countries throughout Europe and beyond. The results of the undercover investigations have been covered by publications such as the daily French newspaper, Liberation, the Dutch national newspapers De Telegraaaf and De Pers, the Belgian online news source De Standaard and Swedish National TV, Aktuellt, with an audience of 940,000 (watch from 3.17 min for the full report)."

Media coverage:

Liberation

De Telegraaf

De Pers

De Standaard

Aktuellt

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."