Viral farm videos lead to outrage, questions
It may seem hard to believe in light of the disturbing videos captured at Fair Oaks Farm by an undercover animal rights investigator recently, but efforts to recognize and reduce animal abuse in this country have come a long way over the past few decades, experts say.
“Things are definitely improving,” said Leighann Lassiter, director of animal cruelty policy for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
Earlier this month, the Animal Recovery Mission released video showing workers at Fair Oaks Farms in Newton County, beating, kicking, throwing and physically abusing calves. The videos spread quickly through social media.
So did outrage.
“The public is a lot less tolerant of animal cruelty. People are more willing to report it to law enforcement and more willing to hold legislators accountable when they feel laws are lagging,” she said.
But, even with laws on the books in all 50 states, there still is work to be done, particularly when it comes to recognizing, acting on and punishing abuse crimes, Lassiter said.
Differences from state to state
Newton County Sheriff ’s police have issued a single felony count each of torturing or mutilating a vertebrate animal, and single misdemeanor counts of cruelty to an animal against Edgar Gardozo Vazquez, 36, who has been taken into custody; and against Santiago Ruvalcaba Contreros, 31, and Miguel Angel Navarro Serrano, 38, who are still at-large.
Meanwhile, the Newton County Prosecutor’s office also is investigating allegations that the ARM employee coerced or encouraged the behavior depicted in the videos.
Lassister said charges might have been more severe if the behavior captured on film — hitting calves with plastic milk bottles, throwing them into trucks and kicking them, as well as adult cows, shortly after giving birth — had occurred in another state.
Disparities across the nation are spelled out on the Humane Society’s state ranking chart, which scores states according to how encompassing their animal welfare laws are. Some states do not have felony penalties for abuse of livestock, for instance.
Last year, Illinois earned a 63% while Indiana received a 33%, according to the society. Both states allow for investigation of animal cruelty on agricultural facilities and both states require licensing for puppy mills.
Illinois also requires pet store disclosure on the source of animals; Indiana does not. Among other laws Illinois has that Indiana does not are felony penalties for attending dogfights and prohibitions against possession of big cats, primates and bears as pets.
While officials in both states warn and might issue citations for animals left in hot cars, Indiana also has a Good Samaritan exemption for people who remove a dog from a hot vehicle; Illinois does not.
When bigger is not better
Another variance across state lines is the coverage of livestock or farm animals, said Scott Beckstead, director of rural outreach for the Humane Society.
The Humane Society of the United States does not oppose animal agriculture, he said.
“What we oppose is industrial animal agriculture as defined by these giant corporate-owned operations that deprive animals of even their basic needs, that keep them tightly confined, usually in large, warehouse-like barns,” he said.
Such setups tend to be the antithesis of the typical family farm, where animals spend their days out on pasture and are usually much smaller in size, he said.
“It’s the difference between a farm and a factory,” he said.
The conditions on a large Confined Animal Feeding Operation, such as Fair Oaks, he said, create an environment where animal abuse and mistreatment is more likely to occur.
“You cannot be milking tens of thousands of cows and make sure every one of those animals is getting the care she needs,” he said. “And (you cannot) also be making sure that every single employee is not engaging in this conduct.”
The dairy industry, Beckstead said, has very strong animal welfare and care guidelines in place.
“The problem is that rules are only as effective as the means to enforce them and the bigger the dairy operation, the more difficult it is to enforce those standards,” he said.
Protections for pets
Emily Klehm, CEO and executive director of South Suburban Humane Society in Chicago Heights, said the Illinois Humane Care for Animals Act not only defines owners’ duties but spells out degrees of possible punishment for abuse to animals.
Klehm said about 1% of the 3,500 animals that come to the facility each year have been abused.
“Our greatest struggle is enforcement of this law,” she said. “Prosecution of animal abuse and neglect is extremely difficult. Forensics are applicable but are not the same and with actual abuse, we almost always need a witness proving it. Otherwise, there is a lack of probable cause and prosecution cannot proceed.”
Case in point: Clarabelle.
From what Klehm and others at the shelter can gather, Clarabelle, a dog brought to the shelter recently, likely had her neck sliced open by a human and was left for dead.
“She crawled into a backyard where the resident dogs were let out and they attacked her,”
Klehm said.
Police were called and the dog was rushed to a veterinary hospital, where she underwent multiple surgeries, she said. The dog is now doing well in foster care, but Klehm said the community calls upon the shelter to find the offender and prosecute.
“But what we struggle for the community to understand is that finding the person who did this is almost impossible,” she said.
Karen Schutt, Animal Control Officer for Tinley Park, said a man recently brought a tote filled with 11 cats to a village shelter and said he found them along 80th Avenue.
Schutt said his story seemed suspicious.
“It was two moms and nine kittens,” she said. “One of the kittens was dead. Most of the others had upper respiratory infections. Three ended up losing eyes because they were not treated.”
The neglect, she said, bordered on abuse.
“If we could have proven those were his he could have been charged with abuse,” she said. “The challenge is enforcement and evidence.”
Abuse that is obvious — hitting an animal with a bat or shooting a bird with a BB gun — is easier to prosecute, especially if there are witnesses, she said.
“What’s not so easy is when neglect becomes abuse,” she said. “There’s a line between them but both are punishable.”
For example, she said, eye ulcers or impacted ears that are not treated can be considered abuse. Not having a poodle, ShihTzu or St. Bernard regularly groomed can also be defined as abuse if the animal’s hair gets knotted to the point that it tears at the skin and leads to infection.
‘There’s no reason to neglect animals these days,” she said. “If you can’t care for them, there are lots of places that will take them.”
Schutt said although she has seen turtles and other wildlife that “probably” were injured or killed purposely, she has not seen outright animal abuse in Tinley Park.
“But when I worked in the emergency clinics, there were cases that were questionable,” she said.
Lassiter said each year the Humane Society trains 5,000 to 6,000 officers at its enforcement training center. Skills range from breaking up dog fighting rings to understanding basic neglect, she said.
“A lot of (sheriff ’s) offices, especially in rural areas, are still hesitant to do the training,” she said. “It’s a commitment.”
The mindset of an abuser
Cruelty to animals is something that is not taken lightly, Schutt said.
Children who abuse animals can end up doing very serious harm to humans, Schutt said. “If you know of someone harming animals, you should be alarmed.”
Freida White, executive director of the Humane Society of Northwest Indiana, said people are outraged by abuse but are still reluctant to report it.
“Sometimes they just don’t want to get involved,” she said.
Just as frustrating, she said, is when charges end up getting dismissed by the justice system.
Last winter, she said, a woman called the society to come and get her dog, which was dead in the backyard.
“She said it had run off the night before. But, lo and behold, that dog must have come back and hooked itself back up to the chain. It had frozen to death,” she said. The offender, she said, got “a slap on the hand.”
Statistics, she said, show a link between animal abuse and other crimes.
A 2001-2004 study by the Chicago Police Department revealed that of those arrested for animal crimes, 65% had been arrested for battery against another person, according to a information on the Humane Society of the United States website.
“If you’re frustrated because of your job, your relationship or your finances, you might be tempted to take it out on the weak, the innocent, something that can’t fight back,” Schutt said.
Lassiter said the Humane Society is working on a federal bill that would help provide funding for family shelters so victims of domestic violence would be able to leave their situation with their pets.
The Society is also working to get the courts to prohibit abusers from owning, possessing, residing with or having employment in a place that has access to animals, she said.
In the works
One of problems with prosecution of animal cruelty cases in every state is the acceptance that animals are property, Lassiter said.
“There’s a misconception that this felony carries a sentence of so many years in prison. Unfortunately, sentencing guidelines in many states mandate that animals are not considered victims of crime. They’re considered property,” she said. “So beating a dog is no different than bashing out a car window when it comes to determining how much time you spend in jail.”
A first offense of a property crime could result in mandatory probation, she said. “The judge may not even have a choice.”
The Humane Society does not want animals to be seen as people but, she said, most prosecutors agree that beating an animal to death is a much different crime than beating up a refrigerator and should be punished differently.
“So we’re working with sentencing guidelines to get animals seen as living victims under the law so abusers can be punished accordingly,” she said.
What can you do?
When it comes to protecting farm animals, Beckstead said, be a better consumer.
“I think it’s important to know where your food came from and what was involved in the production of that food. We encourage people to get to know their local producers,” he said.
Beckstead admits, however, that it can be difficult to discern what products were humanely produced and which were not.
“What you can do is look for (label) certifications such as Animal Welfare Certified or the Global Animal Partnership gap program that sets standards for animal care,” he said.
He suggests the public meet local growers at farmers markets and reach out to groups that promote organic products.
“Know what grass-fed means and the difference between cagefree and free-range eggs. Look for information that indicates animals spend their time on grass. If you see ‘pasture-raised’ that’s usually a very good sign, it means animals are outside on grass living the kind of life they should be living,” he said.
In general, he said, “consumers want more information about how their food is produced and they want to know it was produced humanely,” he said.
Those kinds of things, he added, weren’t even part of the national conversation just two decades ago.