You want to go vegan but you could never give up cheese? Really? You still want to eat it after hearing about this??
If you missed this important undercover footage which has brought the cruelty of dairy into the public eye, here's the gist of it (quoted from MFA):
During a four-week investigation between April and May, MFA's investigator documented farm workers:
- Violently punching young calves in the face, body slamming them to the ground, and pulling and throwing them by their ears
- Routinely using pitchforks to stab cows in the face, legs and stomach
- Kicking "downed" cows (those too injured to stand) in the face and neck - abuse carried out and encouraged by the farm's owner
- Maliciously beating restrained cows in the face with crowbars - some attacks involving over 40 blows to the head
- Twisting cows' tails until the bones snapped
- Punching cows' udders
- Bragging about stabbing, dragging, shooting, breaking bones, and beating cows and calves to death
After viewing the footage, Dr. Bernard Rollin, distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University, stated: "This is probably the most gratuitous, sustained, sadistic animal abuse I have ever seen. The video depicts calculated, deliberate cruelty, based not on momentary rage but on taking pleasure through causing pain to cows and calves who are defenseless."
Yep, nasty stuff.
In good news, there has been worldwide media coverage of this footage and one of the workers, Billy Joe Gregg, has already been arrested and charged with 12 counts of animal cruelty.
And you gotta hand it to MFA, what a horrific job having to go undercover and watch that shit in order to expose them to the world. I can't bear 10 seconds of it on a small grainy video on my computer, let alone in real life for a month. This video just makes me want to show everyone and yell out "This is why!! This is why I'm vegan! You see? You understand now?!"
If you want to keep posted, Erik Marcus of vegan.com is following the fallout of this investigation.
oh my goodness, that's awful. i couldn't even watch 2 seconds of it.
ReplyDeleteI really want to see stuff like this in Australia - I just feel like, as a vegan in Australia, I know so much detail about farming + animal conditions in other countries (primarily the USA), and so little about the conditions in Australia that I can't argue it efficiently with people who are like, "wow, conditions in the USA are so shit, it's good things aren't like that here."
ReplyDeleteHi Niki,
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched the footage - and don't think I will - thanks for the info though - I will be sharing your post with some non-veg friends.
Andrea.F
Penny, yep, awful. Unwatchable. How can dairy be ok if we can't even bear to know what goes on?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I hear you Steph. Many people don't believe that these things happen in their own country, only in America. There is a lot of footage, photos and news stories about the horrific animal cruelty in Australia too – heaps about chickens and eggs as well as live export, plus the tv ads of pig farming, which in Australia is actually worse than in the UK and some US states where sow stalls are banned. There’s not nearly as much exposure as there is in the USA, but the fact that in all the Aussie footage that we have seen so far, it is all just as bad as the USA footage. Australia still has all the usual cruelty - sow stalls, battery hens, broiler chickens, 'downers', feedlots, veal, mulesing, circus, rodeo, slaughter without stunning ('halal')... obviously in big agribusiness profit comes before welfare, regardless of the country. Animals Australia and Animal Liberation Victoria are just a couple of the sites which have info on Australian animal cruelty.
Andrea, no need to watch but glad to hear you are passing it on. :)
Ohh ... no words really. Like you I want to tell people this is my reason why and I don't understand how anyone could see that and not do the same.
ReplyDeleteI'm also with Steph - I often feel like I know more about the US than here, which makes it more difficult to bring points home in discussions. Maybe we need a study group ...
PS - I've also joined the Animal Justice Party. First time ever! Thanks for blogging about it.
Hey, that's great Miss T! Wish I could join, it's the only time I tried to in my life!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, you are right, so much of what we know is USA based which makes people think it's not happening here. We need an HSUS or MFA here in Oz!