When extreme winter weather hits, our first thoughts often turn to protecting our loved ones, including the dogs we share our homes with. We would never dream of leaving them chained up in freezing temperatures—the thought of an animal suffering, shivering, and succumbing to the cold is unbearable.
Yet, for countless calves in the dairy industry, this suffering is standard practice.
Newly released footage has once again exposed this chilling reality, capturing conditions at a dairy farm in the Eastern U.S. just before and after Winter Storm Fern hit.
The video captures vulnerable, month-old calves—some with endearing names like “Lucky Charm,” “Florence,” and “Prancer”—left exposed in outdoor hutches. These young animals, standing in deep mud and snow, had little meaningful protection from the howling wind and frigid elements.
While communities across the country were warned days in advance to prepare, these animals were left to endure the storm where they stood. This heartbreaking sight is the predictable consequence of a system built on neglect.
“These calves are extremely young and vulnerable, yet they’re left exposed to extreme weather because the system prioritizes production over protection. When disasters hit, the neglect we document isn’t an exception or a mistake; it’s a predictable outcome of an industry that treats animals as replaceable.”
— Paula Tejeda-Moncrief, Director of Investigations, U.S., Mercy For Animals
The Worst-Case Scenario: When Extreme Cold Turns Fatal
While our newest footage is disturbing enough, it’s a terrifying reminder of how utterly brutal the dairy industry can be during extreme weather.
A 2019 Animal Equality investigation revealed the worst-case scenario: calves suffering from frozen legs, sick newborns surrounded by their already dead pen mates, and animals whose hooves were separating from their legs due to the freezing conditions.
Calves in this footage were left to suffer for days in agony until they finally died, their last moments spent shivering next to their deceased pen mates.
The Inherent Cruelty of Industrial Dairy Farming
The dairy industry’s repeated failure to protect animals—whether from extreme cold, violent abuse, or painful, routine procedures—is the focus of our Got Misery campaign. The cruelty is not a mistake or the result of a few “bad apples”; it is built into the system itself.
- Routine Separation: Calves are routinely taken from their mothers shortly after birth, causing distress for both.
- Life of Suffering: Cows are forcibly impregnated repeatedly to keep milk flowing and are discarded and slaughtered when their bodies give out, far short of their natural lifespan.
- Dishonest Advertising: Dairy marketing sells a fiction of happy cows that completely masks the confinement, injury, and exhaustion the animals experience.
We believe it’s time to stop letting the marketing arm of the industry—Dairy Management Inc.—hide these cruelties behind a veil of wholesomeness.
The Time to End the Deception Is Now
Don’t let the effort to expose this cruelty be in vain. Join the campaign today and demand an end to this cycle of suffering:
- Sign and share the petition: Demand accountability by calling on Dairy Management Inc. to end the deceptive marketing that conceals animal cruelty.
- Make a gift: The truth behind the dairy industry is horrific, but together, we can ensure it can’t be ignored. Your gift today powers our critical work to expose cruelty, demand accountability, and transform our food system into one that is kinder to animals, better for people, and healthier for the planet.
Together, we can make the truth impossible to ignore and build a future where no animal is left to endure extreme weather conditions alone.
