It’s hard to watch. And if you do, it will be hard to get out of your head.
Animal protection group Mercy for Animals (MFA) today released the latest result of their ongoing undercover investigations into farmed animal welfare, or lack thereof.
A three-minute video made of footage that MFA says was shot last month at E6 Cattle Co. in Hart, Texas shows calf after calf being bludgeoned in the head with pickaxes and hammers, thrown, kicked, stepped upon, and piled into heaps—some still alive.
'No regard for animal welfare'
A dying calf convulses violently.
A wailing calve’s emerging horns are burned out of his skull.
Apparently ill calves are confined amid their own accumulated urine and feces, swarmed by flies.
Sores, cuts, and wounds afflict others.
“We don’t treat those calves,” says a worker. “We don’t put much attention on them. No medicine or nothing.”
MFA alleges that “the owner of E6 Cattle required his employees to bash in the calves' heads with a claw hammer, forcing them to condemn calves to a prolonged and horrific death.”
In response to the video, MFA quotes farmed animal welfare consultant Dr. Temple Grandin as saying, "It is obvious that both the management and the employees have no regard for animal welfare."
Soon after gathering the video footage and other evidence, the group says it used the material to file a complaint with local authorities against E6 Cattle alleging an "ongoing pattern of torture, unjustifiable infliction of pain and suffering on animals, and a failure to provide necessary medical care."
Lawmakers try to curb undercover investigations
The video’s release comes at a time when legislators in three states—Florida, Iowa, and Minnesota—have introduced bills that would restrict or prohibit hidden-camera video and photography in animal use facilities including large-scale farms such as E6 Cattle. MFA says E6 Cattle "rears calves for use on dairy farms, confining approximately 10,000 calves and subjecting them to lives of prolonged neglect and misery."
The lawmakers and agriculture representatives behind those bills argue that covertly-obtained images are not accurate representations of an industry that as a whole is humane and law-abiding, and that the whistleblower-type footage disseminated by MFA, The Humane Society of the United States, PETA, and other animal protection groups is often staged or manipulated.
Read about Iowa’s proposed measure, House File 589.
E6 Cattle representatives could not be reached for comment at the time of this post, which was after business hours.
Please check this page again soon for ongoing coverage of the proposed undercover video legislation.
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Katerina Lorenzatos Makris (a.k.a. Kathryn Makris) has written 18 books for major publishers and hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Petside.com, and two regional news wire services.
A cofounder of AnimalBeat.org, she holds a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and a lifelong interest in animal issues.
Among her books are Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know about Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press), coauthored with Shelley Frost, and The Eco-Kids, a series of novels for tweens (Avon Books).
Her story "Small Change" placed as a finalist in The Bark magazine's short fiction contest and appeared in the November 2010 issue.
She may be reached at youradopteddog@yahoo.com
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