INDIANAPOLIS — An animal welfare group released disturbing new video of alleged animal abuse at a Texas-based farm that is slated to open a new location in Newton County, Indiana.
Animal Recovery Mission says the video released Tuesday showing cows being kicked, beaten and abused in multiple other ways was taken at Natural Prairie Dairy in Texas.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management approved Natural Prairie Dairy to open a new, 4,000 cow dairy farm in Newton County, Indiana back in January and the company purchased a 2,500 acre property in February.
Richard 'Kudo' Couto, founder of ARM, said their "undercover investigation" went from March 2019 until July 2019.
ARM is the same group that released disturbing videos of alleged abuse at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana earlier this year.
Fairlife Milk, which used milk from Indiana's Fair Oaks Farms, issued a statement following the allegations against Natural Prairie Dairy.
"Fairlife does not source — and never has sourced — milk from the farm in this video," Fairlife Chief Operations Officer Tim Doelman said in a statement. "Our focus is on the farms that do supply us. We recently completed third-party audits of every farm that provides us milk to ensure they are in line with national FARM standards, and that they all have committed to our zero-tolerance policy on animal abuse."
READ | Undercover video shows animal cruelty at Fair Oaks Farms, founder admits
You can watch a shorter version of the videos before their official release HERE. (Warning: The videos may be disturbing to some people.)
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. Cows inhumanely tied left in uncomfortable positions for hours and cows falling into cesspools almost drowning.
- 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.
- 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.
“The cows of Natural Prairie Dairy live a life of pure misery and torture. Beaten, stabbed and locked down in feces ridden barns, this is not what consumers imagine when purchasing organic milk and/or cheese. The world has just been schooled on the reality of organic dairy.” - Richard “Kudo” Couto, ARM Founder
RTV6 has reached out to Natural Prairie Dairy in Texas for a statement regarding the allegations and has not yet received a response. We will update this story as soon as one is issued.
