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Hi John,
We just published another investigation uncovering calf abuse behind the dairy industry. This time at 140 Cattle Co. in Livingston, a calf-raising operation that confines over 18,000 young calves and heifers. It's linked to Hilmar Cheese Company, one of the largest cheese producers in the world.
On visits in April and May, DxE drone investigators filmed workers kicking calves, including one worker repeatedly kicking a calf who was down on the ground, and more than a dozen instances of workers pulling calves by their sensitive ears and tails. The footage is now published at FactoryFarmWatch.org, our one-stop-shop for exposing California’s enormous factory farming industry.
We also posted the investigation footage on social media. Please watch and share the video.
You might never have heard of Hilmar Cheese Company, but it supplies a huge slice of the American cheese market, primarily through wholesale distribution to restaurants. Its plant in Hilmar, CA processes more than a million gallons of milk a day and its cheese reaches consumers through Nestlé and Sargento, and through the distributor Pacific Cheese Company, which distributes to restaurants including Taco Bell.
140 Cattle Co. was started by three families who each own multiple dairies supplying Hilmar. They built a facility that takes 18,000 newborns from their mothers and leaves a small crew responsible for moving, feeding, and overseeing all of them. Under those conditions, workers are pushed to move calves quickly and through brute force.
This isn't a case of a few bad workers. It's the fifth time this year we've published footage of calves being abused at a California calf ranch. And DxE investigators are documenting and reporting more cruelty all the time.
We reported this footage to the Merced County Sheriff's Office almost three months ago, but there's still been no meaningful update. This is the same silence we got from Stanislaus County after the LA Times reported on our Agresti Calf Ranch investigation in May. Dairy is California’s largest agricultural sector, contributing over $23 billion a year, and the state helps sell it. "Got Milk?" and "Happy Cows Come from California" were built with public agencies at the table. Agencies that close to an industry rarely move against it.
So the pressure has to come from people, like me and you.
Share this email with a friend, and ask them to sign the open letter to California legislators at FactoryFarmWatch.org.
Thank you,
Cassie King
Communications Lead
Direct Action Everywhere
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Direct Action Everywhere
PO Box 4782, Berkeley, CA 94704
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