The video, which is expected to be released in full sometime in the next week, shows some rough handling of down cows, singing of udders, a cannulated cow, newborn calf care and the dead pile (two animals) at Natural Prairie Farms. The group is relying on its ability to misinform and scare consumers out of purchasing milk.
Richard ‘Kudo’ Couto, founder of ARM, said their “undercover investigation” went from March 2019 until July 2019.
According to ARM, some of the violations observed in the video they plan to release are:
Maltreatment and Excessive Abuse of Dairy Cows: Cows tormented, kicked, hit with shovels, and stabbed with screwdrivers by vet tech crews and animal caregivers. (There is video footage of rough handling of down cows.)
Neglect of Sick and Injured Dairy Cows: Flesh wounds, eye gashes and/or leg injuries not treated. Cows w/ infected eyes, infected udders, cuts and scrapes, limping and too weak to walk seen untreated and in declining health.
Squalid, Overcrowded, Unsanitary Housing: Cows live in squalid, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Cows spend the majority of their lives in illegally overcrowded feces-ridden barns and insufficient stalls force cows to lay in feces-ridden cement, causing foot rot and infections to untreated open wounds and scars. (To be clear, these cows live in what appear to be sand-bedded freestall barns with fans. The video shot of the lanes with manure in them was clearly just before they were either flushed or scraped.)
Force Feeding & Scientific Research Performed on Cows: Portholes to allows access to the rumen of a cow, to perform scientific research and analysis of the cow’s digestive system. Cows being force-fed with metal tubes by untrained employees. (There is footage of an employee giving a cow in a chute some kind of electrolytes with a tube. The “portholes” they mention are cannulas.)
Check back in later this week, to watch a video produced by our partners at AgDay TV. They plan to have a veterinarian walk through and explain what’s going on in all of the video currently-released video footage.
