Think before you eat veal. New factory farm animal abuse exposed
A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation provides a horrifying look into E6 Cattle Co. in Hart, Texas.
E6 Cattle rears calves for use on dairy farms, confining approximately 10,000 calves and subjecting them to lives of prolonged neglect and misery. For over two weeks in March of 2011, an MFA undercover investigator documented the operation’s deplorable conditions and brutal mistreatment of animals.
MFA’s hidden camera reveals:
* Workers bludgeoning calves in their skulls with pickaxes and hammers – often involving 5 to 6 blows, sometimes more – before rendering the animals unconscious
* Beaten calves, still alive and conscious, thrown onto dead piles
* Workers kicking downed calves in the head, and standing on their necks and ribs
* Calves confined to squalid hutches, thick with manure and urine buildup, and barely large enough for the calves to turn around or fully extend their legs
* Gruesome injuries and afflictions, including open sores, swollen joints and severed hooves
* Ill, injured and dying calves denied medical care
* The budding horns of calves burned out their skulls without painkillers
Upon reviewing the undercover footage, Temple Grandin, PhD, animal welfare advisor to USDA, declared: “It is obvious that both the management and the employees have no regard for animal welfare.”
Colorado State University Professor of Animal Sciences Dr. Bernard Rollin also condemned the operation: “I urge everyone in a position of authority to serve notice to the world that this sort of behavior has no place in a society wishing to consider itself civilized. These people must be corrected with the full force of the legal system.”
Dr. Armaiti May, a practicing veterinarian experienced in the care of farmed animals, echoed Dr. Rollin’s sentiment, recommending that “charges of animal cruelty be brought against the workers involved and that the farm be shut down for cruel treatment of animals and lack of proper oversight of its workers.”
The owner of E6 Cattle required his employees to bash in the calves’ heads with a claw hammer, forcing them to condemn calves to a prolonged and horrific death. As Debra Teachout, DVM, asserts, “They feel every blow until they become unconscious.” The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns the use of blows to the head as a means of killing young calves.
Promptly following the undercover investigation, MFA alerted law enforcement authorities to violations of Texas anti-cruelty law at E6 Cattle, and presented a detailed legal complaint and meticulously compiled evidence of such violations to the Castro County District Attorney and sheriff. The evidence demonstrated an ongoing pattern of torture, unjustifiable infliction of pain and suffering on animals, and a failure to provide necessary medical care.
As MFA continues to expose the unconscionable cruelties of animal agriculture, and to diligently pursue justice by aiding prosecutions of animal abusers, consumers still hold the greatest power of all to end the needless suffering and death of calves – and all farmed animals – by adopting a compassionate, vegan diet.
I love that picture!
So much for “humane” milk. Even if these beautiful creatures had not been bludgeoned on the farm with pick axes and hammers — The little boys would have soon had their turn on the kill floor with a bolt to the brain and a knife at their throats.
Healing thoughts and prayers are with the undercover investigator who had to witness such brutality. And for those who still consume cow’s milk after seeing the cost – I have to ask them what will it take to turn your heart to compassion?
Nothing!! People don’t care. All they think about is having a piece of meat in their mouths. I have tried to talk to relatives and friends about what is happening. They don’t want to hear it and everyone makes me feel as though I am a weirdo for caring for animals. They don’t even want to view the videos. I think because then they will have to make a conscious decision of whether or not to buy meat and support what they are truly afraid to find out. They really get upset and do everything in their power to stop me from talking about slaughtering animals.
I have eaten meat for most of my life. I attended a high school in my hometown that focuses on the agricultural sciences. I learned so much about animals and the farming industry. But they didn’t alert us to the dark, ugly side of the industry.
I found myself compelled to not eat meat anymore after reading the book entitled “Slaughterhouse” by Gail Eisnitz. It turned me off from eating flesh. I even tried to find justification for eating meat by trying to find videos that show the slaughtering and by trying to find slaughtering done in a “good, clean” way. Didn’t work.
Often, I now wonder what had become of the calves we helped deliver. The chickens we collected eggs from to sell to market. The horses, sheep, goats and pigs we took our time to groom, made name tags for, played with, and cared for. I discovered this ugly truth sitting up very late one night watching a program. That is when I started to understand why the calves were being kept in small, dark boxes suffering from malnutricion and diarrhea. We were made to think that many things that were being taught was okay. We thought our “pets” were being raised to be happy on a distant farm to live out their lives with happy families who just wanted to have a good, tamed farm animal. I now know better.
I went to visit my old school during a fair. I saw happy animals such as the ones who were there when I attended the school. Friendly pigs with name tags who come up to you and play like dogs in the lush green fields, sheep who like to be petted, goats who like to prance around happily, and hiefers who liked to have their backs, sides and just behind their ears rubbed. I asked one of the students what will happen to the animals. She stated that in about 2 weeks they were going to be transported. I asked to where. She said to slaughter. All I could do was shake my head. I continued to play with them, all the while knowing what nightmare they would undergo in a matter of 14 days. I rubbed their bellys, scratched their heads and prayed they would have a quick death when it came time. I wished I had my camera so that I could show others who they were, what they looked like and how happy they were. I hope during transport, they were forgiving and not wondering too hard why they were being sent away from the love they had recieved while in the students care. I hope they were not abused and depressed too long while waiting unknowingly for fate to take its hold. I hope they didn’t have to deal with an angry worker who might want to make the suffering prolonged because they had a bad day. I think about this quite often. Sorry for being so sentimental.
I agree with you. The abusers will meet their maker one day. I have been reading “Making Kind Choices” Everyday Ways to Enhance your Life Through Earth – And Animal Friendly Living, written by Ingrid Newkirk and given to me by Pulin Modi of PETA.
“I can never see animals kept in captivity in the same way again.” -John Cercipio after returning from Iraq, where he was held as a POW during Operation Desert Storm.
A real man!