Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
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-
sible for preventing the mistreatment of farm animals. Any cases of abuse, if they come to light, are handled by local law enforcement under the animal cruelty law.
The undercover videos, taken at Okeechobee County dairy farms by members of Animal Recovery Mission who got jobs on the farms, showed cows being beaten to force them into milking stalls, including the use of blade-tipped PVC pipes. They showed calves confined to tiny cages in the broiling sun, sitting in muddy water or their own feces.
“Right now, as we speak, these babies, without proper shelter, are sitting cooking in the sun,” Couto said. “The babies are in too small crates. They’re in wire crates with very light, agricultural shading over part of the shelter. It stops no weather. The rain goes right through it. They have to be elevated or these babies are going to be sitting in a foot of water for days. And they’re dying from exposure.”
The dairies blamed lowlevel employees for the abuse and fired several of them. After the videos surfaced, all four farms were placed on probation by the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management Program. Since then, Southeast Milk Inc., the cooperative of which the farms are members and which distributes their milk, imposed mandatory animal-welfare training on members and their employees.
The training included the latest national standards, which require “documented training of workers on animal care throughout every stage of a cow’s life, stricter requirements for working with veterinarians, and mandatory corrective action for farms not meeting the standards,” according to a statement issued this week by Southeast Milk.
“All four of the farms implicated last year have completed the corrective action plans required under the National Dairy FARM program to improve their animal care practices, and are no longer on probation,” Jim Sleper, CEO of Southeast Milk Inc., said in a written statement. “In addition, each of the four farms involved has implemented and/or strengthened its video surveillance systems.”
“Animal care remains a top priority for Florida’s dairy farmers,” he said.
The animal-rights group has begun looking for sponsors to introduce a dairy cow protection bill at next year’s state legislative session, having previously worked successfully for a bill to ban the sale of horse meat in Florida. The bill would require housing in which cows could easily stand up, turn around and lie down, with proper ventilation to reduce concentrations of ammonia and dust. It would require that calves receive adequate shelter from weather and clean, dry bedding.
The bill would prohibit workers from dragging or throwing calves by the tail, skin, ears or legs. It would prohibit the use of electric cattle prods on calves or on sensitive parts of the cow’s body. It would require disabled cows to be given food, water and veterinary care, and if they were too sick, to be humanely euthanized.
The number of arrests reached six last month, when the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office charged Juan Carrasco, 35, and Juan-Carlos HernandezCamacho, 44, with misdemeanor animal cruelty for their actions as workers at Larson Dairy. Two workers from McArthur Dairy have been sentenced to 20 days in jail. In addition to the arrests, authorities have issued warrants for four other workers. Although the animal rights group turned over videos from two other dairies, Burnham and Davie dairies, no workers have been charged.
Also at the time the videos surfaced, Publix suspended shipments from the dairies involved. The grocery store chain did not respond to request for information last week on whether the suspension remained in effect.