Dairy Farms In Texas and California Under Investigation For Animal Abuse
“Abuse and neglect every single day”, as two separate cases uncover fraud and animal cruelty on U.S. dairy farms.
A downed cow on a Californian farm. Undercover footage shows the cow struggling to stand many times, before they died from starvation, dehydration, and injury. Credit: Animal Outlook
The U.S. dairy industry is facing criticism as separate undercover investigations have found aggressive animal cruelty and even fraud on dairy farms in Texas and California.
The first cruelty case is part of an eight-week undercover-investigation by animal-rights group SEED, into Erath County Dairy Sales in Dublin, Texas.
The group found illegal activists including employees removing and replacing the cows’ ID tags to mislabel them as “organic”.
Investigators also witnessed systematic abuse at the dairy site, including “the kicking and shocking of ‘downed’ cows with electric prods”, reports VegNews.
“The fraudulent activity and the potential food safety consequences at the center of this case are just two of the harms imposed on animals and people by industrial animal agriculture”, says Cailen LaBarge, co-founder of SEED. “As consumers, we cannot isolate ourselves from the impacts of a food system dominated by cruelty”.
SEED have reported these breaches of the Criminal Cruelty to Livestock Animals and Animal Traceability to the USDA.
Meanwhile in California, an undercover investigator from group Animal Outlook found shocking cruelty at the Dick Van Dam Dairy factory farm in Southern California.
The hidden camera filmed “remarkably cruel ways” of treating the dairy cows, including:
Injured or downed cows being lifted over a wall and dragged by chains and tractors using a painful “hip clamp”
Cows being violently kicked, jabbed and shocked by workers and a farm manager
Squalid conditions, including calves covered in flies and left to languish in the mud
Sick cows producing blood-tinged pink milk
Lack of euthanasia or veterinary care — sick cows were left to slowly die
High mortality rates including a stillborn calf being painfully pulled from his mother’s body.
I saw abuse and neglect every single day at this farm,” said Erin Wing, who investigated Dick Van Dam Dairy.
Animal Outlook have filed a lawsuit against Dick Van Dam Dairy and the individuals caught on camera for violating state and local animal cruelty laws. The group hopes that by making this investigation public, consumers will realize their own power to decide to turn to the dairy industry and say, “enough is enough.”
Looking to make the switch from dairy to plant-based milks? It’s easier (and tastier) than you think: check out our Guide to the Tastiest Vegan Milks here.
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