In late 2011 and early 2012, PETA conducted an undercover investigation at Adirondack Farms, LLC, a
that takes 180,000 pounds of milk—intended for their calves—from approximately 1,800 cows every day in Clinton County, New York. Adirondack Farms sends that milk to Massachusetts-based Agri-Mark, Inc., the self-proclaimed "largest supplier of farm fresh milk in New England." Agri-Mark makes Cabot and McCadam cheeses and had
During the course of the investigation, PETA's investigator found that workers routinely jabbed and struck cows with a pole and cane—on the face, udder, and hindquarters—when leading them into a room to be milked. When PETA's investigator brought these abuses to the attention of a farm manager, the manager admitted that the workers "get carried away with" striking cows.
This same manager—who failed to stop the abuse—was
caught on video by PETA's investigator electro-shocking a cow in the face repeatedly. He also jabbed a fully conscious downed cow, whom he called a "dumb bitch," in the ribs with a screwdriver and used a small vehicle to drag her approximately 25 feet.
Some cows with bloody vaginal prolapses that became covered with pus and manure were left to suffer, untreated, for almost three months. A manager told PETA's investigator that the farm did nothing for cows in this condition.
There was no shortage of animal suffering as a result of the dairy industry's cruel standard procedures. With no pain relief whatsoever, calves' horn buds were burned off so as to stop their horns from growing.
PETA's undercover footage shows one of the millions of young calves who undergo this mutilation every year in the U.S. as she thrashes about in agony, smoke rising from her seared flesh. Workers used "guillotine cutters" to
"lop off" the horns of older animals—again without anaesthetics or pain relief. PETA's undercover investigator also
recorded a manager as he put his arm deep inside a cow's rectum to "rake" faeces out before artificially inseminating her with a "gun," another standard practice on dairy factory farms.
In order to make milking easier, calves' tails were docked by tightly binding them with elastic bands. This causes the skin and tissue to rot and die, eventually sloughing off. Not having a tail deprives animals of the fundamental ability to swat away flies and causes them acute and chronic pain.
To increase milk production, workers injected cows every two weeks with bovine somatotropin (BST, a.k.a., bovine growth hormone, or BGH), which contributes to mastitis,
a painful inflammation of the udder for which cows tested positive virtually daily at the farm. And as at every dairy farm, calves were torn away from their mothers—who are known for their maternal instincts and whose pregnancies last for nine months, just like human pregnancies—almost immediately after birth, causing both mother and calf extreme distress.
PETA has notified Adirondack Farms' owners of the behaviour of the managers and workers responsible for the abuse and neglect and asked that they take appropriate disciplinary action—including termination—as well as notifying all managers and employees that no form of cruelty will be tolerated.
Oceans2Earth a not for profit organisation has also taken an initiative of looking into animal issue by providing
volunteering services in Australia for the purpose of animal conservation.
WHAT CAN YOU DO
Please go to the PETA site link
here and send a quick e-mail to Agri-Mark CEO Dr. Richard Stammer and politely urge him to implement PETA's recommendations immediately to help end the most egregious abuses of cows on cooperative members' farms and to improve the animals' welfare.
Also, you may want to consider to
go vegan now.
