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Ohio Dairy Farm Animal Abuse Video Outrages the Ag Industry...find out more...what do you think?

Shaun Haney has this great post on his website RealAgriculture.com outlining the events and follow up from the video released on the animal abuse on an Ohio Dairy Farm. What are your comments?

 

Mercy For Animals Ohio Dairy Farm Video Outrages the Agricultural Industry

An undercover surveillance video was released this week by Mercy for Animals  that is maybe one of the most disturbing things I have ever witnessed in agriculture.  Shot over a thirty day period on the Conklin Dairy Farm in Ohio, the video shows the dairy’s hired man pitchforking the stomach of a calf, head stomping and extreme physical abuse.  One could take the opinion that this is just the case of one bad apple tainting the rest of us but…..I think we as an industry need to be proactive and begin to work harder to prevent these sort of actions ever taking place again.

I will admit that I have tried to watch the video on three occasions and still have not made it through the video.  The behavior showcased is not being “old school” or “show him who’s the boss,” this is sadistic.  I really don’t have any answers but we need to get this out of our industry.  I know many dairy farmers, ranchers and feedyard owners and I have never ever seen this kind of brutality or believe that this sort of animal care would be condoned by anyone.  The livestock producers of North America do care about the livestock that they keep and treat it with the most respect.  I plead you to not take this as common practice on the farms across this continent.  Animals are not our slaves as alleged by activists, but farmers across the continent treat our animals with care and respect.

 

If you are interested to see the Mercy for Animals Video, click here, but I must warn you this is extremely sadistic behavior and viewer discretion is advised.

 

Check out Michele Payn-Knoper’s Opinion

 

Check out Eliz Greene’s Opinion

 

As an industry we need to figure out how to rid ourselves of these sort of terrible behaviors and terrible situations.  Although not regular this is an embarrassment and outrage for our industry.  The man found in this tape has been taken into custody, and rightfully so.  In this case it was a farm employee who is caught on tape and the Conklin’s (farm owner) were not involved allegedly.  So how do we prevent this from happening?  Do we need to better educate our employees?  Is the answer more monitoring?  Is the answer training and certification for the people that work with livestock?    The trouble is that I don’t think that any level of training or coaching could of changed the behavior of this brutal individual.   As an industry we need to make sure that this type of behavior never happens again.

With saying all of this there is also criticism for Mercy for Animals and how they handled this situation.  My Twitter buddy Mike Haley a farmer in Ohio discusses this situation in  agreat and informative post entitled, “UnderCover Agendas.”  Mike does a great job of discussing the questions around, why did Mercy for Animals let this behavior happen for 30 days which allowed these animals to suffer longer.  Secondly, the accusations by Mercy for Animals and HSUS that this is common practice on farms across the US and consumers need to “ditch milk.”  Thirdly Mike discusses how this video was released screams an agenda that is really not about saving the animals in the video but really about pushing the anti-agriculture agenda of HSUS in Ohio.

 

Listen to an interview with Wayne Pacelle, HSUS by BuckEyeAg

 

Below is an interview compliments of AgWeb, with the Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.  He responds to the Ohio Dairy Farm video
If you cannot the the below video, click here

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They are guilt as charged, and should get the full penalty, but in reference to the activists comments at the end of the video ditch crurty, ditch dairy. Is tarring people with the same brush. And to use abuse of animals is one of the oldest tac to get a polical agenda on the map. Don't get me wrong when, the proper laws are not in place to prosecute, and should be used to that end. Example the abuse of cats and dogs in China to make coat fur linings for Canada. But when radical groups feed of this and use this sort of abuse to promote an agenda for the soul purpose, of destroying a industry by saying everyone who has a Dairy does this, is wrong.
If a person were to videotape a crime they would be charged as an accessory, similar to what the actual person doing the crime would be charged. I would expect that the organization that posted the video should be charged as an accessory also.
We in agriculture need to take a stand and stand up for what is proper and what is morally correct. One way to do this is to not watch the video because the higher the traffic to the video, increases the ambition of the activists. Why do they tape the videos? To get publicity. Same as terrorists. As Bristow mentioned - it happened, a person was charged. Leave it to the authorities and work together to stop terrorism in Agriculture. Take the culprit out behind the barn for a taste of his own medicine.
I have not watched the abuse video and likely will not.

But consumers and others will watch it and probably believe this is how farmers treat their livestock...

Being good to livestock is not news and certainly not something that is going to be a hit with the Youtube crowd...

I am worried about how this portrays our industry.
Here here

Wayne Black said:
If a person were to videotape a crime they would be charged as an accessory, similar to what the actual person doing the crime would be charged. I would expect that the organization that posted the video should be charged as an accessory also.
We in agriculture need to take a stand and stand up for what is proper and what is morally correct. One way to do this is to not watch the video because the higher the traffic to the video, increases the ambition of the activists. Why do they tape the videos? To get publicity. Same as terrorists. As Bristow mentioned - it happened, a person was charged. Leave it to the authorities and work together to stop terrorism in Agriculture. Take the culprit out behind the barn for a taste of his own medicine.
Your right it foat around on you tube and the media pick up on it to boost ratings, the main stream media get most of their stories from Youtube, if not all. Then claim it as their own. The filth that run some of these media networks are no better than the people that carry out the acts and protray it as news worthy sometimes.

Rpigsrgr8 said:
I have not watched the abuse video and likely will not.

But consumers and others will watch it and probably believe this is how farmers treat their livestock...

Being good to livestock is not news and certainly not something that is going to be a hit with the Youtube crowd...

I am worried about how this portrays our industry.
If I would see animal abuse by an employee, fellow employee or family member, I would step in and put a stop to it. I could not stand by and film it. I do not know what is worse, the actual cases of abuse or the lack of response. To me the charges should be the same for both the abuser and the individual who took the film and did nothing to stop the attack. We have a God given duty to care for our animals and protect them and filming abuse is not a suitable response.
Media has such a double standard when it comes to this.
Here is a response from OFAC posted on RealAgriculture.com

Ontario Farm Animal Council Responds to the Conklin Dairy Video – Crystal Mackay


To say that last weeks release of the Mercy for Animals video from Conklin Dairy Farm was an outrage is being light. My post last week brought on some high amounts of emotion and ridicule for the people at Conklin dairy farm. In that post we also discussed the needed criticism for Mercy for Animals based on the fact they let this abuse happen for a month and did not stop it but stood there and caught it on tape. I can’t even watch the whole video, nevermind watching this happen for a month. Would they videotape a kid being abused for a month and not report it immediately. Of course not but they let these dairy cows be. It just doesn’t hold water with me at all.

Crystal Mackay is the Executive Director of the Ontario Farm animal Council and is based in Guelph. We discuss the outrage that the video has caused and why Mercy for Animals should also be criticized.

To view the video, Click Here


Personally I think the industry has responded positively by saying this is in an outrage and will not be tolerated. I completely agree with Crystal that this kind of sensationalistic showcasing of animal abuse is not in support of the humane treatment of animals at all. Anyone livestock farmer that I have talked with about this video has said the same thing, “the video is disgusting.”
An interesting end to this story - Gary Conklin will not be charged and the Conklin Dairy Farm Video was "heavily edited and creatively spliced together". Here is the story Cows, Lies and Videotape on HumanWatch.org Click here
Thanks for posting the update Sandra!
I still say the person videoing the whole thing should be charged as an accessory to the crime.

Sandra Dales said:
An interesting end to this story - Gary Conklin will not be charged and the Conklin Dairy Farm Video was "heavily edited and creatively spliced together". Here is the story Cows, Lies and Videotape on HumanWatch.org Click here

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