Abuse brings reforms
Animal rights group calls it public relations
The undercover videos from Florida dairy country generated worldwide outrage, with images of cows being kicked, punched and burned, with sick ones dragged off by tractors to die without veterinary care.
Since their release late last year, six dairy workers have been arrested on animal cruelty charges, with the latest ones charged last month. The industry has instituted reforms and new training programs. But Animal Recovery Mission, the Miami animal-rights group that infiltrated four dairy farms and exposed the mistreatment, considers the training programs and the arrests of low-level workers to be cosmetic measures that will do little to address the suffering behind milk, cheese and ice cream.
“That was public relations,” said Richard Couto, founder and lead investigator for Animal Recovery Mission, which has conducted undercover operations at illegal slaughterhouses and other places where animals are being harmed. “So the public could be put at ease and could go back to drinking their milk and eating their butter.”
The organization, which advocates non-dairy alternatives such as soy milk, has approached Publix, so far without luck, about using its clout as a buyer to impose animalwelfare standards. It is also drafting a bill to protect cows and calves, since it turns out that no state or federal agencies are respon-