Ugh... Disgusting Animal Cruelty Video

[lungs]

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO

I really do hate posting this but hiding from the problem does absolutely no good. For those hesitant or unable to watch the video, it's a video taken by an animal rights group called Mercy For Animals at a dairy farm in Ohio. All I can really say about the video is that it is absolutely disgusting.

This just really pisses me off as a dairy farmer. To be clear, I find the overall objective of Mercy For Animals (ending animal agriculture) to be asinine. Yet as an industry, we seem more worried about discrediting organizations such as Mercy For Animals instead of taking a look at ourselves and our own practices. The vast majority of dairy farms don't treat their animals this way. The problem is that as an industry we like to run that "vast majority" line out there when something like this is released (something I've been guilty of). A vast majority of farmers treating their animals well is not enough.

If we don't get our heads out of our asses as an industry, then it will likely come to the government stepping in and making regulations that will be designed by people based on emotions rather than facts. There has been a ton of research that has been done (and my own farm has participated in such research) that has truly taken animal welfare to a level unknown even ten years ago, especially in terms of how we house our animals.

No research in the world can influence the human element, and when you've got jackass employees and jackass owners like those on this particular video working with these animals, it truly puts a horrible light on farmers that do treat their animals well. Thankfully this particular jackass employee in the video has been arrested and will hopefully be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Not sure what will be done with the owner but I sure hope he gets shut down.

On a personal level, I'm not going to say my own farm is perfect. But we've come a very long way. I've made it very clear to my employees that if they mistreat or hurt one of my animals through carelessness or malice, they will no longer have a job. We've torn apart our facilities and redesigned them with the cow's comfort in mind. I'm dealing with some sick cows and a few deaths where the solution of the farmers in the video would have been to beat the cows. My solution was to call up the veterinarian and take some blood tests where we found a major mineral deficiency causing the problems.

I'm not sure what the solution is. Ending animal agriculture like many groups want won't happen. Burying our hands in the sand like many in the industry are doing solves nothing either. I guess all I can do in my little corner of the world is to do what I feel is right for my own animals based on logic, reason, and science.

[MrBug708]

Holy Crap that's horrible

[DaddyTorgo]

You stick your hand up the cow's hoo-hah to insert bull semen so they can be moms. I'd say you love your animals pretty good. And I'm sure they appreciate all that you do for them.

[SportsDino]

Lock these fuckers in jail, that is some serial killer shit right there. People inhumanely cruel to animals are a half step away from being inhumane to everyone else around them.

There should be laws against this and enforced, there are always more dairy providers that will be happy for the business and do a good job (like lungs and his freaky short tailed mutant cows ).

[SportsDino]

dola, I also couldn't make it very far into the video, I'm sure I'd be calling for a lynch mob if I sat all the way through it.

And shut the whole damn farm down, screw them covering up that they weren't allowing or condoning this behavior. We need more headshot death penalties to bad companies, screw em.

[lungs]

Another thing in that video is the mistreatment of newborn calves. They can be EXTREMELY frustrating at times to deal with. I have one person on my farm in charge of calves. When I hire that person, I blatantly discriminate against men. Most men lack the nurturing aspect necessary for raising newborn calves. The woman I have now is absolutely fantastic. Honestly, it's probably one of the few jobs on my own farm that I'm not very well suited for.

[MrBug708]

The guy on the video is in jail right now

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by lungs

Another thing in that video is the mistreatment of newborn calves. They can be EXTREMELY frustrating at times to deal with. I have one person on my farm in charge of calves. When I hire that person, I blatantly discriminate against men. Most men lack the nurturing aspect necessary for raising newborn calves. The woman I have now is absolutely fantastic. Honestly, it's probably one of the few jobs on my own farm that I'm not very well suited for.

Who mistreats baby animals?? That's horrible!!!

Yay for you!!!

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by SportsDino

Lock these fuckers in jail, that is some serial killer shit right there. People inhumanely cruel to animals are a half step away from being inhumane to everyone else around them.

There should be laws against this and enforced, there are always more dairy providers that will be happy for the business and do a good job (like lungs and his freaky short tailed mutant cows ).

Originally Posted by SportsDino

dola, I also couldn't make it very far into the video, I'm sure I'd be calling for a lynch mob if I sat all the way through it.

And shut the whole damn farm down, screw them covering up that they weren't allowing or condoning this behavior. We need more headshot death penalties to bad companies, screw em.

What these two guys said.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by lungs

Another thing in that video is the mistreatment of newborn calves. They can be EXTREMELY frustrating at times to deal with. I have one person on my farm in charge of calves. When I hire that person, I blatantly discriminate against men. Most men lack the nurturing aspect necessary for raising newborn calves. The woman I have now is absolutely fantastic. Honestly, it's probably one of the few jobs on my own farm that I'm not very well suited for.

My grandmother ran that part of their farm for that very reason. My grandfather didn't have the patience for it.

[Rizon]

Is Sarah McLachlan in this video?

[Philliesfan980]

Seriously, I couldn't make it more than 30 seconds into the video. I actually feel sick to my stomach.

[Philliesfan980]

For those of you who don't want to watch the video (can't blame you), here's a link to an article -

Ohio dairy farm worker charged with animal cruelty | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder

Guy looks like a real winner.

[RainMaker]

I'm not watching the video because it'll make me angry. But what I'll say is these people are sociopaths. These people will eventually do this to humans.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Philliesfan980

For those of you who don't want to watch the video (can't blame you), here's a link to an article -

Ohio dairy farm worker charged with animal cruelty | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder

Guy looks like a real winner.

I'm not going to watch the video, but - misdemeanors? I thought that Idaho was the only state that doesn't have a felony animal cruelty law. It turns out there's four, according to one source. In those states, it doesn't matter how ridiculous the abuse is, you're getting a slap on the wrist.

I think some of the concern about these laws in the effect on the meat industry. I mean, when your job involves cutting a pig's throat alive, I guess that's a concern.

This stuff, and how it makes me feel, makes me feel hypocritical that I still eat meat occasionally. I mean, where do we get off eating meat and then being all upset that the animals are harmed? The video, I'm sure, depicts "unnecessary" abuse, but it's not like exceedingly humane methods are used to put down pigs and chickens and cows.

[saldana]

i would love to see a video of those people being treated exactly the same way in prison.

[Philliesfan980]

Originally Posted by molson

I'm not going to watch the video, but - misdemeanors? I thought that Idaho was the only state that doesn't have a felony animal cruelty law. It turns out there's four, according to one source. In those states, it doesn't matter how ridiculous the abuse is, you're getting a slap on the wrist.

I think some of the concern about these laws in the effect on the meat industry. I mean, when your job involves cutting a pig's throat alive, I guess that's a concern.

This stuff, and how it makes me feel, makes me feel hypocritical that I still eat meat occasionally. I mean, where do we get off eating meat and then being all upset that the animals are harmed? The video, I'm sure, depicts "unnecessary" abuse, but it's not like exceedingly humane methods are used to put down pigs and chickens and cows.

I struggle with the same thing as you do Molson. I have animals, and I love them like they're my kids, but I eat meat nearly every day of the week. I guess in my mind since I don't see the slaughtering process, and it's just a package of nondescript meat, I don't think about it too much.

I can almost say with certainty that if I lived on a farm, my habits would change however.

[lungs]

The issue is that the actual person doing the farming in most cases isn't the one doing the actual killing. Once I load one of my cows and send her off to slaughter, she is out of my hands.

And then with dairy cows, our goal is actually to have our cows live as long as they possibly can. Our productivity is directly correlated with how comfortable our animals are. For example, when we switched from using rubber-filled mattresses to sand as what our cows lay down in, we gained an extra 8 pounds of milk per cow per day. Simply because they had a more comfortable place to rest.

Even with raising animals for beef, where the end goal is for the animal to be slaughtered and end up on somebody's plate, the more stressed the animal is the slower it will put on weight.

Obviously this concept flies over the head of some farmers.

[SportsDino]

There is a line between raising animals for food and sadism, these fools are way over that line. You can't even claim these guys are just heartlessly pursuing profit through sick efficiencies... abusing the animals like this is only wasting labor and reducing the quality/quantity of what is produced. Besides torturing animals is one of the clear signs of a disturbed mind.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by SportsDino

There is a line between raising animals for food and sadism, these fools are way over that line. You can't even claim these guys are just heartlessly pursuing profit through sick efficiencies... abusing the animals like this is only wasting labor and reducing the quality/quantity of what is produced. Besides torturing animals is one of the clear signs of a disturbed mind.

All true. But in a way, I find some techniques people use to house and handle animals to be much more subtle forms of animal cruelty. They just don't carry the shock value of videos such as this particular one.

Go back 25 years ago, and my own farm was a bastion of animal cruelty in the way they were housed and handled.

Another part of the problem is public perception of a how a humane cow is handled. Most picture that as a cow laying around in grass on a pasture. Yeah, it looks nice on mild days. We had heat and humidity into the 90's this week. One of our pens has the option to be outside or indoors at all times. If it gets much warmer than 70 degrees, you bet your ass they are going to hang out inside because we have heat abatement tools in there. Our other cows frantically sprint to get back indoors. I thought about sleeping in the barn this week because it was much cooler than my own house which doesn't have AC.

[MrBug708]

Luings - Do you use Temple Grandin's methods?

[RainMaker]

I battle with the eating meat problem too. It's just real hard not to get what you need without some meat, particularly lean meats. I've made an effort to eat more of other foods for protein and make sure I never waste meat. I've gotten almost compulsive about saving even scraps for snacks so that I'm not wasting any meat.

One of the ways I view it is that while these animals meet a bad demise, it's probably not as bad as life is in nature. Being torn to shreds by a couple hungry wolves seems much more painful than having your throat quickly slit by a machine.

I guess my issue right now is that I'd pay a little more for animals to be treated right. I also think that with what lungs has been saying and with what kind of technology we have, there is no reason that animals need to be tortured to produce for us. I have been researching the milk, egg, and meat companies to make sure I'm buying them from places that are humane.

Currently I buy milk from Grass Point Farms and eggs from Phil's which seems to have a lot of positive recognition from humane associations. They are a little more, but nothing that's going to put anyone in the poorhouse.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by lungs

The issue is that the actual person doing the farming in most cases isn't the one doing the actual killing. Once I load one of my cows and send her off to slaughter, she is out of my hands.

And then with dairy cows, our goal is actually to have our cows live as long as they possibly can. Our productivity is directly correlated with how comfortable our animals are. For example, when we switched from using rubber-filled mattresses to sand as what our cows lay down in, we gained an extra 8 pounds of milk per cow per day. Simply because they had a more comfortable place to rest.

Even with raising animals for beef, where the end goal is for the animal to be slaughtered and end up on somebody's plate, the more stressed the animal is the slower it will put on weight.

Obviously this concept flies over the head of some farmers.

Your cows have beds? i <3 your farm!!

[lungs]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Luings - Do you use Temple Grandin's methods?

Not specifically, as I know the name but haven't gone in depth into her methods. I glanced at a few quickly just now and would say I'm pretty close.

My techniques are constantly evolving. There are some restraint techniques the common person might frown on, but the cow doesn't really know that I'm trying to help her when I'm trying to hit a vein and administer fluids

[lungs]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Your cows have beds? i <3 your farm!!

My whole senior thesis in college was on cow beds

[Honolulu_Blue]

Yeah, this is exactly why I have given up beef and pork. In fact, I have cut down all meats, save the occassional chicken, turkey and fish. Even then, about 80% of my meals are meat free. I still don't feel great about eating those and I hope to stop at some point.

Just knowing what goes on, I can't in good conscience do it. I love animals. I have owned pets my entire life and can't draw the line between pet/food anymore.

I am lucky enough that my wife is vegan, a dietician and an amazing cook, so I know I'm getting enough of everything. She makes it incredibly easy for me to go without meat. When we're apart, for travel or whatever, it's much, much harder.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by lungs

My whole senior thesis in college was on cow beds

Awesome!

[SportsDino]

Decent living conditions to a degree is just good business sense, the industrial meat farm with microcages for the animals is known to increase rates of disease and other forms of waste... not to mention the festering lakes of animals crap. Regardless of your stance of killing a cow for a meal, sanitary living conditions are necessary for human health in my opinion.

Ultimately I probably land on the animal cruelty side by most people standards, particularly if I'm thinking of what should be the minimal regulation we should have. However i think there should be some sort of USDA Ultra Humane grade of some sort that is enforced strictly... if you raise the animals in a nice environment that even the hippies can stand (well the less extreme hippies who like meat)... you qualify for a fancy sticker that lets you sell at happy meat stores.

I know there are enough bleeding heart meat eaters that it may have a slight chance of being profitable (I confess, I hate seeing animals mistreated but other than a couple lifetime restaurant bans, I like my hamburgers too much and I don't feel there is a natural ethical problem with eating meat).

[dawgfan]

Just wanted to note how much I appreciate having a guy like lungs here to help educate us on dairy farming - it's a really cool side benefit of browsing a board like this, to be able to get an insider's perspective on a wide variety of topics.

Keep up the good fight lungs!

[DanGarion]

5 seconds and I was done with that video. Cruel person. Just like the the CEO of a company is responsible for their workers, the owner of that farm should be prosecuted and shut down.

[kiwiLB57]

Mate, that is just awful.

The kneejerk reaction to this though is to wean yourself off dairy which only punishes the entire dairy industry.

I used to work for the main New Zealand dairy co-op (Fonterra) and did a farm tour of a trial automatic farm. There were automatic robotic milkers which the cows could use when they wanted. They just ambled about in the fields and then when they felt like it they just navigated their way back through a series of automatic gates to the milk shed, stood on a plate, the cups attached themselves and milked them and then they wandered off.
They looked postively happy.

Fonterra markets themselves as the only free-range dairy company in the world as all the cows (4.5 million or so) are permanenly free-range in the mild New Zealand climate. It is also the lowest-cost solution for farming in New Zealand as all of the cows are fed grass year-round (inlcuding silage/haylige in winter months which is effectively just stored grass). No grain feeding.

It was the best company I ever worked for.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Philliesfan980

For those of you who don't want to watch the video (can't blame you), here's a link to an article -

Ohio dairy farm worker charged with animal cruelty | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder

Guy looks like a real winner.

I don't know how people watched the video, I couldn't even manage to finish the article.

[lungs]

Well folks, I've uncovered some abuse going on at my own farm. The last few weeks I've had some cows show up with some sore legs in areas that they don't normally get sore. Finally one of my more trusted employees came to me today and said that it is the result of two other employees hitting them with a pointed object.

Those two employees will be terminated shortly. No warnings, no nothing. They'll be lucky I don't turn them in to the sheriff.

Employee who brought this to my attention will be rewarded with a bonus and I'll be hiring his brother who is unhappy at his current job.

[Butter]

Sorry to hear about that, but well done by taking swift and decisive action about it.

[Groundhog]

Far out. Wish I didn't watch that video.

[lungs]

One thing about that video the thread was originally based on, the owner has been cleared of any wrong doing. The part where he appeared in the video was selectively edited....

As I can vouch from my own experience now, it can take some time to figure out where the abuse is coming from. It's been about a month now where I've seen some problems in my own cows. Sometimes it takes a brave soul to step up like the employee that did for me. The guys being fired have threatened him if he said anything....

Let's just say that the county sheriff is going to be on speed dial while I sort through this mess.

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by lungs

Well folks, I've uncovered some abuse going on at my own farm. The last few weeks I've had some cows show up with some sore legs in areas that they don't normally get sore. Finally one of my more trusted employees came to me today and said that it is the result of two other employees hitting them with a pointed object.

Those two employees will be terminated shortly. No warnings, no nothing. They'll be lucky I don't turn them in to the sheriff.

Employee who brought this to my attention will be rewarded with a bonus and I'll be hiring his brother who is unhappy at his current job.

Glad you found out who's abusing you animals. I don't know what kind of person would do such a thing - glad you're terminated them with no warnings at all and I just pray they get out of the farming field completely!

[johnnyshaka]

If these guys did threaten your loyal employee then I think the best action is to definitely get the Sheriff involved. Get these guys labeled with a record so more farmers like yourself have a better opportunity to know what they might be getting into by hiring these guys in the future and also give your employee better piece of mind as the cops with have these guys on their radar should they try something silly in the future.

Point being, if you don't say anything now it'll be tougher to stop these guys from continuing their behavior as you'll be asked why you didn't report them in the first place.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

If these guys did threaten your loyal employee then I think the best action is to definitely get the Sheriff involved. Get these guys labeled with a record so more farmers like yourself have a better opportunity to know what they might be getting into by hiring these guys in the future and also give your employee better piece of mind as the cops with have these guys on their radar should they try something silly in the future.

Point being, if you don't say anything now it'll be tougher to stop these guys from continuing their behavior as you'll be asked why you didn't report them in the first place.

I agree with johnny. Report the SOB's.

[lungs]

Well, the ax fell. They denied it of course.

They ended up killing one cow. Kind of a chain reaction... Hurt her leg ----> Cow can't walk to food/water -----> Death. I put her in her own pen with food and water accessible without walking but the damage was already done.

What's done is done though. Time to move on with my new (and hopefully better) crew.

Anybody got any recommendations for security cameras that can broadcast via the web? I'd like to put something in that I can keep an eye on things whether I'm there or not.