Dear John,

A new investigation shows the dairy industry is covering Wisconsin—the country's most prolific cheese state—with giant lagoons of feces. 

Mercy For Animals drone footage confirms that the cute farm imagery of Wisconsin dairy marketing conceals the grim truth: 

The industry relies heavily on hundreds of "mega dairies" with hundreds or thousands of cows crammed into their facilities—and millions of gallons of manure that can seep into groundwater.

We filmed more than a dozen Wisconsin dairy farms pooling manure in massive open pits, some less than a mile from residential neighborhoods. Nearby residents turn on their kitchen faucets, and brown water pours out. 

Cow waste in drinking water now sickens hundreds annually in one Wisconsin county alone.

Fly-over drone footage captures seemingly endless rows of cows imprisoned in small hutches. Though mega dairies currently make up only a small percentage of the farms in Wisconsin, they're so large that they contain almost half of the state's cows. 

These nightmarish facilities are out of control.

Drone pilot Mark DeVries, who led the investigation, confirmed that "open pools of waste are the norm in Wisconsin—as cows, the environment, and neighboring communities suffer." 

Arlin Karnopp showed DeVries the discolored, manure-contaminated drinking water in the home he and his wife have lived in since 1979. His grandchildren have to brush their teeth with bottled water when they visit. "It makes me very angry," said Karnopp, "for what we did to make our home a place for the family, it’s being destroyed."

Residents like Karnopp are far from the only victims of industrial animal agriculture. Factory farming is the biggest cause of animal suffering on the planet. 

Farmers separate babies from their mothers soon after birth, and both mothers and babies suffer. Stand up for animals—share the truth Mercy For Animals uncovered about Wisconsin cheese's dirty secret on Instagram and Facebook.