This is my hometown and I am so fucking ashamed...beyond BELIEF!
COLUMBUS, Ohio --An animal welfare group said Tuesday that a graphic video it secretly recorded shows workers at a dairy farm beating cows with crowbars, stabbing them with pitchforks and punching them in their heads.
The video was recorded in an undercover investigation at Conklin Dairy Farms Inc., said Mercy For Animals, a not-for-profit group that publicizes what it calls cruel practices in the dairy, meat and egg industries and promotes a vegan diet.
The video shows workers holding down newborn calves and stomping on their heads. It shows one worker wiring a cow's nose to a metal bar near the ground and repeatedly beating it with another bar while it bleeds.
Click here to watch the full video clip. (WARNING: The video is graphic and disturbing.)
One employee was arrested Wednesday and is facing charges.
Billy Joe Gregg, 25, is in custody, charged with 12 counts of cruelty to animals and charges against more people are pending, prosecutors said.
If convicted, he could serve three months in jail concurrently.
Gregg is living in Delaware but has worked at farms in Oregon and Georgia. He is currently being held at Tri-County Jail in Mechanicsburg, pending a hearing Thursday.
"The charges that are going to be pending here in a short while are second-degree misdemeanors. The most severe misdemeanor is a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum 180 days in jail and $1,000 fine, second-degree misdemeanor carries a sentence of 90 days in jail, a $500 fine," said Tim Aslaner, city prosecutor.
Conklin Dairy Farms, a fourth-generation family operation based in Plain City, said it takes the care of its cows and calves very seriously and had reviewed the video.
"The video shows animal care that is clearly inconsistent with the high standards we set for our farm and its workers, and we find the specific mistreatment shown on the video to be reprehensible and unacceptable," Gary Conklin, of Conklin Dairy Cattle Sales LLC, said Tuesday night in an e-mailed statement. "We will not condone animal abuse on our farm."
The company said it would interview its farm workers and anyone found to have willfully abused the cows or calves would be fired.
The statement read in its entirety:
"As fourth-generation farmers, our family takes the care of our cows and calves very seriously. We take equally seriously the allegations that have been made about our farm operation and the mistreatment of our animals.An Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesperson told NBC 4 that 100 percent of Conklin Dairy Farms' milk is sold to Minerva Dairy in Minerva, Ohio. The ODA said Minerva does not sell the milk to stores, but uses it to make cheese. The ODA spokesperson said Minerva is not required to report stores selling its products to the state.
"We have conducted an initial review of the video that the activist group has released. The video shows animal care that is clearly inconsistent with the high standards we set for our farm and its workers, and we find the specific mistreatment shown on the video to be reprehensible and unacceptable.
"We will not condone animal abuse on our farm. We have launched our own internal investigation into this matter and will be conducting interviews with everyone on our farm who works with our animals. We already have terminated the worker involved who was seen to have willfully abused our cows and calves.
"We are cooperating fully with law enforcement authorities overseeing this situation. Further, our farm will institute immediate retraining of all those who remain on the farm and who work with our animals.
"The trust of our customers in the way we operate our farm, care for our herds and produce quality, safe milk is of critical importance to us, and we will work to maintain that trust as we address this issue."
Minerva Farms plant manager Dave Saling tells NBC 4 his company has discontinued all business with Conklin Dairy Farms.
Saling called the alleged abuse "disgraceful" and added that it made no sense to mistreat the animals knowing that animals under stress produce less.
Saling said Minerva began doing business with Conklin less than eight weeks ago, using an outside contractor to deliver the milk to Minerva, 15 miles southeast of Canton.
Conklin is one of 75 milk producers that Minerva works with to make cheese products. Saling emphasized that Minerva had no idea Conklin employees might be abusing animals and the company does not support such behavior. He declined to name which retailers sell its products in the Central Ohio market.
Last year, Mercy For Animals, which is based in Chicago, released a video showing workers at an Iowa egg hatchery tossing male chicks into a grinder. Industry groups said such instantaneous euthanasia was a common practice because male chicks can't lay eggs or be raised quickly enough to be sold for meat.
Mercy For Animals' executive director, Nathan Runkle, said the cow video was shot between April 28 and Sunday by an undercover worker at the dairy, about 25 miles northwest of Columbus. He said the documented abuse violates Ohio's anti-animal cruelty statute.
The group presented the video and the evidence it collected to the prosecutor's office in Marysville. The prosecutor's office didn't respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
MERCY FOR ANIMALS PRESS CONFERENCE
Mercy For Animals held a press conference in Downtown at 11 a.m. Wednesday. NBC 4's Mike Bowersock was at the press conference.
"We are calling for all farm employees who engaged in cruelty to animals, including the owner, to be held criminally accountable for their actions, which were malicious and sadistic in nature and caused severe pain, fear and stress in the animals, said Mercy For Animals' Daniel Hauff.
"This case graphically illustrates the often cruel and abusive plight farmed animals in Ohio face. Clearly, we need stronger, more meaningful laws in Ohio to deter farmed animal abuse."
NBC 4 attempted to speak with Conklin Dairy Farms. The following was the e-mail response NBC 4 received: "The farm is taking this matter seriously and is in the midst of their own investigation and are not available for comment as they are busy addressing the issue. Thank you for understanding."
Who Is The Group Behind The Cow Video?
Mercy for Animals was founded in 1999. It's an IRS-recognized non-profit with offices in several states, including Ohio. The group's website says it is "dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals." It also encourages consumers to adopt a vegan diet and lifestyle.
In an effort to uncover animal abuse, the group sends volunteers to farms to look for and document cruelty. The operatives (the group calls them "investigators") apply for and take jobs at various livestock farms. Throughout their employment, they wear hidden cameras and microphones.
"They do what the other employees do, to a point, and they basically try to blend in and document anything that happens to the animals," says Daniel Hauff, the group's Director of Investigations. "Our investigators do exactly as they're instructed by the facility."
The group says it has completed at least five undercover projects in Ohio, each allegedly documenting severe abuse:
The group's website also lists work in Pennsylvania, Iowa, California, and North Carolina. A investigation in New York state led to the introduction of an anti-cruelty bill in the state legislature.
- Buckeye Egg Farms in 2001
- Daylay in 2001
- Weaver Brothers in 2002
- Ohio Fresh Egg in 2004
- Conklin Dairy Farm in 2010
"I think their motives are questionable," says Mike Bumgarner, Vice President of the Center for Food and Animal Issues at the Ohio Farm Bureau. "We have to really question the intent when you sit on a video or these situations day, weeks, months on end, before you release them. When you see a violation like this being done and cruelty out there, it should be brought to the authorities' attention and the owner's attention to be dealt with immediately."
The Farm Bureau also questions the timing of the video release. The president of the US Humane Society is in Ohio today (Wednesday) to promote putting anti-cruelty legislation on the statewide November ballot. Mercy for Animals says the timing is a coincidence.
STATEMENT FROM THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES
Today, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, issued the following statement in response to the release of an investigation by the organization Mercy for Animals into a dairy farm operation in Union County, Ohio:
“The people who committed the sadistic and barbaric cruelty documented by Mercy for Animals at an Ohio dairy should have the book thrown at them. These deeply disturbing attacks against helpless animals should be troubling to anyone with any level of decency. Given the anemic state of Ohio’s anti-cruelty laws, it is time for the Legislature to upgrade these statutes so judges and prosecutors have the tools to handle people who engage in malicious cruelty, including to farm animals.”
Mr. Pacelle is in Ohio this week, touring the state with family farmers in support of the Ohioans for Humane Farms ballot initiative to promote the humane treatment of farm animals. The measure would ban inhumane killing of animals on the farm, outlaw the transport of downer cattle, and halt the extreme confinement of veal calves, breeding pigs, and laying hens in cages barely larger than their bodies.
I don't come across many random videos I know nothing about and watch them all the way through, but this creation was just irresistible and I am quite positive most of you will find it just that as well. I can see this patented hexakopter being made into a much bigger one and being utilized in a very efficient humanitarian manner. Awesome Incredible Amazing Brilliant invention!
God, this just never gets old. And with the addition of an Autotune mix, it just makes my day even brighter and more glorious. I want to go and jump into a pit of lava now that my life is complete.
R.O.A.T.M.A.B is, I am guessing, a Camel Wannabe? Either way, I can't reach out and touch your awesome bro, he's absolutely untouchable. Especially with that Grease t-shirt, he's in a league of his own. And for the mullet-laden bitch flickin' me off in the background, go touch yourself ugly ass. :P
Google Image Source - Proof be Strickin'
Google Image Source - Proof be Strickin'
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