Idaho’s Dairy Industry Shamed by Leaked Confidential Memo

b6.jpgOnly months after working to pass an ag-gag bill designed to prevent whistleblowers from exposing horrific animal abuse and other crimes on factory farms, the United Dairymen of Idaho have sent a “confidential” letter to dairy farmers across the state encouraging them to not even allow the media to film at their facilities. According to the Associated Press, which received the letter from an anonymous source, the warning was sent to about 500 dairy farms in Idaho.

Idaho’s factory farms clearly have a lot of horribly corrupt and abusive practices to hide if they are willing to take such desperate measures to conceal their cruel practices from the public’s view. The sad truth is that animal on Idaho’s dairy factory farms are often beaten, kicked, dragged, and even sexually molested.

In 2012, Mercy For Animals released an undercover video exposing horrific animal abuse at Idaho’s Bettencourt Dairies – the largest dairy factory farms in the state. The investigation resulted in the conviction of multiple workers who were caught on camera viciously beating and shocking cows, violently twisting their tails in order to deliberately inflict pain, and dragging a downed cow by her neck using a chain attached to a tractor.

View the undercover video footage here:

 

Factory farms subject animals to abuses that are simply out of step with most Americans’ values–such as cramming animals in cages so small they cannot turn around, mutilating them without painkillers, and slitting their throats while they are fully conscious. Rather than hide their cruel practices, Idaho’s dairy industry should focus on ending them.

Compassionate consumers can take immediate action to help end the routine cruelties perpetrated by the dairy industry simply by going vegan.