California dairy farm being sued over undercover investigation video that shows abuse of cows
The video shows workers kicking cows in the face and udders, jabbing their faces, legs and udders with wooden canes and metal pipes, twisting their tails, and poking fingers in their eyes.
BEAU YARBROUGH: An animal rights organization has sued a San Jacinto dairy, alleging cows are beaten and abused, in violation of industry standards and state law… The lawsuit follows an undercover investigation late last year by Animal Outlook activists who allegedly found violations of state animal cruelty laws at the dairy… The dairy supplies Dairy Farmers of America, which in turn produces Alta Dena Dairy and other brands, including Target’s DairyPure and TruMoo…
Photos and videos released by the Washington, D.C.-based animal rights group show the corpses of newborn calves rotting in the pens where their mothers still lived. Pink, blood-tainted milk is squirted into milk cans — the result, according to the group, of injured and infected cow udders. Workers are seen striking animals with metal poles. Cows, unable to walk, are blasted with hoses, struck and walked on by workers attempting to move them, and lifted by heavy equipment.
“Supervisors and staff use violence as a daily management tool,” the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s lawsuit against the Dick Van Dam Dairy reads in part. Cows are motivated by “kicking them in the face and in their sensitive udders, repeatedly jabbing their faces, legs and udders with splintered wooden canes and metal pipes, twisting their tails, poking fingers in their eyes, and other painful methods”…
The Sonoma County-based Animal Legal Defense Fund filed the suit in Riverside County Superior Court on Sept. 30, in conjunction with the Riverside-based Talkov Law Corp. The suit was announced Thursday. The ALDF has previously gone after dairies, zoos, pet stores and puppy mills, according to Kelsey Eberly, a senior staff attorney with the organization. “This lawsuit is seeking for this dairy to be shut down,” she said. “The depth and the breadth of the cruelty shown in this investigation shows no bounds.” SOURCE…
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