Going behind the scenes on a farm tour is the only experience I've had visiting with animals on a "real" farm. We have dairy cattle down the street and a few horses on the pasture next to us but that's about it.
Then there's this video. These are the opposite of the happy cows you see where you live or at dairy farms, you know and love. What you'll see in this video is horrifying.
The undercover video was taken at the largest dairy in the U.S. You'll see behavior that is so horrible you wouldn't believe me if I was just writing an article without "visual proof" of some kind. The employees are seen kicking and throwing the baby calves.
The Animal Recovery Mission or ARM launched an undercover investigation documenting systemic and illegal abuse at Fair Oaks Farm in Fair Oaks, Indiana. If you can wrap your minds around this, this farm is a popular tourist destination.
This is the Animal Recovery Mission report and their Vimeo statement below:
"Undercover investigators for Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) have confirmed that male calves from Fair Oaks Farms are in fact transported to veal farms (Midwest Veal and Calf Start), despite the corporation's claims that it does not send its male calves to veal farms.
The following abuses were witnessed on virtually a daily basis:
Employees were observed slapping, kicking, punching, pushing, throwing and slamming calves; calves were stabbed and beaten with steel rebars, hit in the mouth and face with hard plastic milking bottles, kneed in the spine, burned in the face with hot branding irons, subjected to extreme temperatures, provided with improper nutrition, and denied medical attention. This resulted in extreme pain and suffering by the calves, and in some cases permanent injury and even death."
Watch for yourself.
Can you imagine their public tour?
The investigator asks how we can stop the abuse at this dairy farm and the obvious answer is you shut them down. The babies are literally abused all day long.
RTV6 in Indianapolis reported that the undercover worker was instructed, according to the report, to transport dead calves using back roads to a hidden dump area.
"At no time shall a tourist or tour bus see the workers disposing of the dead," read the report. "This would hurt the image of the company."
Animal abuse is off the charts at this farm. I've never seen anything like this and either had the investigative team at ARM. Can animal cruelty get worse than this and will this farm close as a result? How could executives now know this was going on every. single. day. I'm not even sure taking full responsibility matters at this point. Animal welfare activists should get over there and start making some noise.
Thank you for ARM for making this video available and for exposing the worst kind of animal abuse. We should all be concerned about the treatment of animals and now I wonder outside of this one Indiana Dairy Farm what else is going on behind the scenes. Clearly, the brand should be boycotted and animal care 101 should be a new best practice for anyone working there.
If you could save a farm animal, what type of livestock would it be? Leave us a comment below.
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