The following is just one reason why ‘Ag Gag’ should never have been allowed ! – this is what US politicians who support Ag Gag don’t want you to see –

Congratulations ‘Mercy For Animals’ – great expose.          SAV.

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*** WARNING *** – Extreme Animal Suffering Shown in Video Footage on the Following Link:

http://www.burgerkingcruelty.com/

Are your Burger King purchases funding horrific animal abuse? A new Mercy For Animals investigation reveals sadistic animal abuse at a major Burger King dairy supplier in Idaho that has led to three workers being charged with cruelty to animals.

This undercover investigation documented:

Workers and management viciously beating and shocking cows and violently twisting their tails in order to deliberately inflict pain

Workers and management repeatedly shocking a downed cow and then dragging her by her neck using a chain attached to a tractor

Extremely unsafe and unsanitary conditions, including feces covered floors that cause cows to regularly slip, fall, and injure themselves

Sick or injured cows suffering from open wounds, broken bones and infected udders left to suffer without proper veterinary care

More Information

In August 2012, an undercover investigator with Mercy For Animals documented heartbreaking animal abuse at Bettencourt Dairies, a major Burger King dairy supplier, including:

Workers and management viciously beating, kicking, punching, and shocking cows and violently twisting their tails in order to deliberately inflict pain

Workers and management dragging a downed cow by her neck using a chain attached to a tractor

Extremely unsafe and unsanitary conditions, including feces-covered floors that cause cows to regularly slip, fall, and injure themselves

Sick or injured cows suffering from open wounds, broken bones, and infected udders left to suffer without proper veterinary care.

Expert Opinions

After reviewing the undercover footage, Dr. Temple Grandin, the world’s leading expert in farmed-animal welfare, stated: “The atrocious treatment of cows at this dairy is an indicator of a total lack of management supervision.”

In a joint statement, Dr. Bernard Rollin, a distinguished professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University, and William Wailes, a dairy specialist and head of the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University, declared: “Of the dozens of such videos that we have watched, this one was the most horrific and the most upsetting. … Never have we seen such outright sadistic pleasure taken by workers in animal suffering.”

Ditch Dairy

Far from leading the carefree lives portrayed in the dairy industry’s “happy cow” commercials, cows exploited and killed for Burger King’s cheese endure lives of near constant misery and deprivation.

Treated as mere milk-producing machines, these intelligent and social animals suffer almost unimaginable abuse from the time they are born and ripped from their mothers’ sides until they are so physically worn out from repeated pregnancies and constant milk production that they are sold for slaughter.

Although horrific cruelty and violence are standard practice for Burger King’s cheese suppliers, caring consumers can help end the needless suffering of cows and other farmed animals by choosing any number of healthy and humane plant-based alternatives to milk, cheese, and ice cream. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.

http://www.burgerkingcruelty.com/act-now.php

Act Now

Ditch Dairy! – Every time we sit down to eat, we can choose compassion over cruelty. Adopting a diet free of dairy-as well as meat and eggs-is perhaps the single most important and powerful action you can take to prevent needless cruelty to animals.

Visit ChooseVeg.com for helpful tips, recipes, and more information about choosing healthy and humane plant- based alternatives to milk, cheese, and ice cream.

Tell Burger King to Stop Torturing Cows – Urge Burger King to immediately implement meaningful animal welfare standards that prohibit dairy suppliers from kicking, punching, and shocking cows, dragging and abusing “downed” cows, and painfully cutting off cows’ tails, and to require facilities to provide a safe, clean, and sanitary environment for cattle.

*** FURTHER UPDATE ***:

Sender           Mercy For Animals info@mercyforanimals.org

Subject           MFA Investigation Sends Shock Waves Through Dairy Industry – Prompts Historic Change

Date                11.10.2012 14:12

Dear Friend,

A breaking Mercy For Animals investigation of Bettencourt Dairies http://www.burgerkingcruelty.com/  – a cheese supplier to Burger King – was shown on news outlets across the country and overseas yesterday, exposing millions to the harsh reality of abuse inflicted upon animals imprisoned by the dairy industry.

Our hidden cameras revealed workers viciously beating cows, and repeatedly shocking a downed cow and dragging her by her neck, and sick and injured cows suffering from open wounds, broken bones, and infected udders left to suffer without proper veterinary care.

As a result of our video, three workers—including a manager of the dairy—have been charged with criminal cruelty to animals.

But that is not all.

The corporations buying products from Bettencourt have taken notice! Our investigation has prompted Kraft to ban the cruel and unnecessary practice of tail docking from its supply chain.

This is historic news.

Kraft now stands as the first major corporation to require a mandatory phase-out of this abhorrent practice that causes immeasurable and lifelong suffering to dairy cows.

And, in a statement issued yesterday, Wendy’s announced that it intends to sever all ties with Bettencourt Dairies after being “appalled by the images depicted in the video.”

At MFA, we believe that all animals deserve to live lives free from harm and suffering. So we continue to take on multibillion-dollar industries that profit off the abuse of animals—and we win.

With your help MFA will continue to seek justice for those who suffer in silence behind the locked doors of factory farms.

Your contributions allow MFA to continue to send our brave undercover investigators into America’s factory farms and capture on hidden camera the despicable truths that animal abuse industries work so diligently to hide. Our work in corporate outreach and legal advocacy builds on our investigations and wages wars against cruel factory farms that result in critical and groundbreaking change for farmed animals.

Please lend your support and be a voice for innocent, suffering, sentient beings like the dairy cows of Bettencourt Dairies, who rely on MFA’s lifesaving work.

https://www.charity-pay.com/mfa/donation.asp

http://www.burgerkingcruelty.com/experts.php

Experts

Independent, nationally and world-renowned academic and professional experts in farmed animal welfare and veterinary medicine reviewed the video footage from MFA’s undercover investigation. Below are some of their statements:

Temple Grandin, PhD, PAS

Dr. Grandin is considered the world’s leading expert on farmed-animal welfare. She is an associate professor of livestock behavior at Colorado State University and an animal welfare advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the meat industry. In response to this investigation, Dr. Grandin states:

I watched the dairy video and the abuse of the downed cow with electric prods and dragging with the tractor was horrific animal abuse. If this abusive treatment had occurred at a slaughter plant, the plant would have been shut down by the USDA. The employees were constantly beating and kicking animals as hard as they could. The atrocious treatment of cows at this dairy is an indicator of a total lack of management supervision.

Bernard E. Rollin, PhD

Dr. Rollin is a distinguished professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University and is well known internationally for his over 30 years of work in animal welfare. He was a major architect of federal laws protecting laboratory animals, and has written two books on farmed-animal welfare. He serves on the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production and is an expert witness on animal welfare issues in the United States and abroad.

William Wailes, BS

Mr. Wailes is an extension dairy specialist for the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University. He is also an internationally renowned dairy expert, who has owned and been involved with dairy farms all of his life.

A joint statement by Dr. Rollin and Mr. Wailes states:

Never have we seen such outright sadistic pleasure taken by workers in animal suffering, including gratuitous shocking of the cows (quintessentially sweet and gentle creatures); dragging them with chains; and in what is arguably the worst sequence, one worker savagely beating the cows with a cane, while laughing and screaming maniacally.

The overall impression is of a Hieronymous Bosch vision of hell for cows. The physical conditions, flooded walkways and slick footing, completely replicate the uncaring attitude of owners and managers, as do the docked tails of the cows, a procedure now recognized as useless, painful, and stressful.

[T]he only way to stop such outrageous behavior is to serve notice that society will not tolerate it. This means…that not only sadistic workers must be prosecuted and serve jail time, but so too the owners and managers, since they clearly demonstrated that the normal human motivations of animal productivity and economic returns do not move them.

Debra Teachout, DVM, MVSc

Dr. Teachout is a practicing veterinarian who graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. She also holds an advanced degree in veterinary clinical pathology from Western College of Veterinary Medicine and has completed additional coursework in farmed-animal welfare. Dr. Teachout states:

In this video the animal handling is so brutal and callous in its obvious intent to cause pain, fear and injury, that it is frankly astonishing and disturbing. The conduct of the workers toward the cows is deplorable.

The observed culture of cruelty at this farm has obviously been allowed to flourish for so long, brutality has become the norm. These cows are serving as targets of vicious intent to harm in a management system that is either absent or complicit in a facility culture that exudes violence and abuse. The cows on this farm are suffering from pain, injury and fear. Their welfare has not only been ignored, it has been threatened by abusive personnel and filthy unsafe living conditions. I have rarely seen such brutal treatment of farm animals, and this farm must be shut down immediately. Those responsible for the cruel treatment of these cows must be held accountable and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. They should also never be allowed to be responsible for or work around animals again.

Armaiti May, DVM, CVA

Dr. May is a practicing veterinarian with experience treating farmed animals, who received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from U.C. Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. Dr. May states:

The level of disregard for animals shown and the dangerous conditions at this facility are outrageously appalling. My overall impression is that the facility where this footage was taken is that it lacks regard for basic welfare of animals in its care and does not have proper supervision of its workers. In addition, there are poor sanitation practices and unsafe working conditions which endanger both human and animal health and safety. I recommend that charges of animal cruelty be brought against the workers involved and that the farm be shut down for cruel treatment of animals and lack of proper oversight of its workers.

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

Dr. Balcombe is an ethologist with bachelors and masters degrees in biology, and a doctorate in animal behavior from the University of Tennessee. He is the author of four books on animal behavior, as well as more than 40 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal papers. Dr. Balcombe states:

This footage shows grossly negligent and savagely cruel treatment of dairy cows by workers. The conditions are treacherously slippery, leading to injuries, downed cows, and workers who beat and torment the animals to try to get them to move. This is a concentration camp for miserable cows. It is totally unacceptable. The operation should be shut down immediately and the workers charged with animal cruelty.

Lee Schrader, DVM

Dr. Schrader is a practicing veterinarian, who obtained her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Schrader has over 35 years of experience working with animals, particularly animals with serious, difficult-to-diagnose disorders. Dr. Schrader states:

The brutality and viciousness of the workers in this facility toward the cows is stunning. The animals are electrically shocked, beaten with canes, kicked and jumped on, and subjected to aggressive extension of their tails, resulting in signs of severe pain and fear in the cows. … The treatment of these cows is sadistic and unconscionable.

The treatment of these cows is brutally inhumane. The workers are cruel and obviously do not know how to handle cattle correctly. The filthy, wet barn results in severe stress and injuries to the cows. This facility should be closed immediately.

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