Disturbing Undercover Video Shows Animal Cruelty At Fair Oaks Farms
FAIR OAKS, Ind. (CBS Local) -- The owner of a farm in northwest Indiana is apologizing after an undercover video surfaced showing farm employees abusing dairy cows.
The video, which may be too disturbing to watch for many viewers, was shot by a member of the Florida-based animal welfare group called Animal Recovery Mission while working undercover last year as a calf care worker.
The video shows four employees of Fair Oaks Farms engaged in extreme animal cruelty -- calves being thrown in and out of their huts and kicked and slammed to the ground.
The investigator also witnessed calves being stabbed and beaten with steel rebars, hit in the mouth and face with hard plastic milking bottles, and faces and bodies burned with hot branding irons, according to an ARM report.
The evidence and report were sent to the Newtown County Sheriff's Office for review.
"We are asking Fair Oaks Farms to leave with the calves with their mothers moving forward," said ARM founder Richard Couto told WRTV. "They're dying from not eating and want their mother's udders."
Fair Oaks Farms Founder Mike McCloskey said in statement that he is "disgusted" and takes full responsibility for the actions seen in the video. He said the four employees shown in the video have been fired and a "full investigation of all aspects of the video is underway."
"I am and will continue to be deeply involved in the resolution of this matter, down to every one of our employees, so that I can guarantee that these actions never again occur on any of our farms," McCloskey said.
