Dairy Owner Kicks Sick Cow; Employees Punch Calves

The people at the deceptively named Center for Consumer Freedom think that mud and fallen branches constitute animal cruelty.

So I imagine David Martosko is scurrying to write pieces condemning the abuse that Mercy For Animals has uncovered on a dairy farm in Ohio. Right?

Chicago-based MFA today released footage of its undercover investigation 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 [emphasis mine]
• 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

Wow. I wrote the beginning of this post without having seen the video. And now that I watched all 3 minutes and 43 seconds of it, I'm stunned. I can't believe people treat animals like that. Watching it, I wondered what kind of videos we would have seen in the days of U.S. slavery if the technology had been available. Black people were property back then, just as these cows are.

Industry Response

As I predicted in yesterday's post, the agribusiness industry is responding like it always does after the release of an animal-cruelty video. They're trying to distance themselves from the abuse while criticizing the undercover investigator.

After being shown kicking a sick cow, Gary Conklin, the owner of the facility, had the audacity to say that he cares about his animals.

"As fourth-generation farmers, our family takes the care of our cows and calves very seriously."

On his blog Troy Hadrick, who raises cows and then sends them to be killed for their flesh, first cautions people not to believe everything they see on the Internet, as if somehow this cruelty could be staged.

He then blames the undercover investigator for not coming forward immediately to put an end to the abuse. These investigators don't like this abuse, but they need to record it in order for changes to be made across the industry.

Finally, he condemns Conklin but qualifies it with "if these allegations of abuse are found to be true." The dude's on tape kicking a cow, for Christ's sake.

Ray Prock Jr., who owns a dairy farm in California, also blames the investigator. The criticism takes up one-third of the short post on his blog.

I firmly believe that the right thing to do when anyone observes another person abusing an animal they should immediately stop what they are doing and confront the person or report it to their supervisor if that is not effective then make contact with someone in a regulatory capacity. An employee who blatantly abusesan animal observes another employee doing the same without taking the appropriate action should be immediately terminated.

But animal abuse, animal cruelty is inherent in this industry. It's the norm.

If you still haven't gone vegan, please watch this video. If you're scared that it'll be too hard to watch it, then go vegan without watching it. If you can't stand to see what your money is supporting, then you shouldn't be supporting it.