PETA Releases Abuse Video Connected to Minn. Co.
Published : Tuesday, 29 Sep 2009, 4:56 PM CDT
MINNEAPOLIS - The animal rights group, PETA, has released undercover video depicting animal abuse to dairy cows at a Pennsylvania farm that supplies milk to Minnesota based Land O’ Lakes, Inc.
The video shot during the course of several months depicts filthy conditions in both the barn and milking parlor along with cows suffering from severe illness and infections.
Daphna Nachminovich, PETA Vice President of Cruelty Investigations said at a St. Paul news conference, “Just the deplorable conditions that the animals were kept in made for not just cruelty, but also a health concern for the consumer.”
The video and pictures were captured on the Deitz family dairy farm in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. A former employee of the farm provided the video to PETA after repeated attempts to get the farm to take better care of its cows. On September 22nd, the whistle blower filed in Pennsylvania magistrate court fifteen summary charges of animal neglect and abuse against the dairy farm. Read More
As with most of the videos that are released from animal rights groups, we only see an edited version of the entire story. The only thing we know for sure is that there were some crippled cows at this dairy. How they got they way and how they were handled afterwards is unknown. Hopefully the entire story is available in the near future. What we do know for sure is that the vast overwhelming majority of livestock producers care for their animals. Never before in the history of animal agriculture have we had the tools to provide so much care for our livestock. If the dairy cattle in the video were receiving an inadequate level of care then that situation needs to be resolved immediately.
7 comments:
I wonder why not one of these "whistle blowers" ever take such 'evidence' to others in agriculture if it is truly for making conditions better. If these were honest shots as far back as July why not push cruelty then instead of just ahead of the World Dairy Expo?
Oh goodness! That something should detract from the "World Dairy Expo"! Tsk, tsk...
And I don't know about the "editing" in this video... Really? The one cow wasn't immobilized? The other... who had just recently given birth - The film of the hanging placenta was edited? The feces they were standing in - That must have been a "prop" too.
And with your paragraph of a response you mention "care" three times. Obviously this is the "magic" word.
Bea,
Despite the fact that you claim to be such a lover of animals, you and most ARAs don't know the first thing about them. The shots of cows with retained placentas in that video is the clearest example of that. Cows don't always drop their placentas immediately after birth, most do, but in about 5% of cases it takes a day or so. There's nothing wrong or cruel about that, its just a fact. However the film -makers focus on that because they know that the gullible fools like you will think that its evidence of the farmer doing something wrong.
As for the conditions of the barn, they were admittedely pretty dirty. If that was how the dairy looked 365 days a year, then the farmer should have been told to clean up his act. How do we know though if this was a one time occurence when a sump pump broke or after an extremely heavy rain. Thats where some people might claim that the video was edited.
All in all, I can say that dairy deserves to be punished, but not for everything that the HSUS/PETA are alleging.
Well thanks for the education Anonymous... And as I research further I understand that "The use of hormones to induce early or timed parturition also results in
approximately 67% retained placentas."
Nonetheless, the original issues of dairy still remain regardless of this video or a hundred others like it. The deliberate and constant impregnation; the seperation of mother from child; and co-opting the cows milk that belonged to the calf. The early and frequent "retirements" and "culls" and sending babies off to slaughterhouses...
No video can paint a pretty picture of these common, everyday facts about dairy. And once these practices are made aware to most people... their taste for milk rapidly "sours".
Bea,
I could write a book refuting most of the ridiculous statements that you write (as in the idea that dairies often 'time' births of calves with the use hormones and thus there's an increase in RPs - thats actually a reason dairies don't do that), but I've learned its the equivalent of discussing astrophysics with you. Both are equally over your head.
What I will leave you with is that 2009 is setting itself up to be a a great year for milk drinking in the US (most of the finacial stress in the dairy industry is due to export and macroeconomic issues, not domestic consumption) with potentially the highest consumption of the last two decades. So, if you think you're making any headway with the public, you're wrong.
I'm making "head-way" in my own house and in my own community. Multiply me times many... No one likes the "common (baby killing) practices" of the dairy industry once they are known. And it's just a matter of time before the information gets out to enough people.
Add that to all the great alternatives that already exist - plus the hopes of Cargill's efforts:
http://www.cargill.com/news-center/news-releases/2009/NA3020258.jsp
We're on a roll! :)
Bea, your lack of ability to see things from an animal's point of view shines through in your second comment.
Are you aware that pregnant is the normal state for a female cow? If it were up to her and the bull she would be pregnant just as frequently.
Mother and child? Don't you mean cow and calf? That's the trouble with you ARAs, you see everything from a human perspective. It's all about you. What the animals want or need is never considered, it's all about what you want, what you don't want to see, what you don't want to believe.
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