I have always loved animals. That’s why I became a vegetarian some time ago. Yet it didn’t occur to me to cut out dairy products. “Surely cows don’t suffer in the dairy industry,” I told myself naively.
Before going undercover, I tried to prepare myself for what I might see inside a dairy factory farm. I knew on an intellectual level that these mother cows led a tragic existence, and when I joined Animal Outlook I became vegan. But nothing could prepare me for the painful realities I witnessed up close while investigating dairy farms in Pennsylvania and California.
I worked inside two facilities, and wearing a hidden camera, I documented unimaginable cruelty and violence. Cows imprisoned on dairy factory farms are abused day in and day out by workers trying to meet the demands of dairy consumers, including unsuspecting vegetarians.
I had no idea that workers in the dairy industry mutilate calves by pressing hot irons into their skulls to burn their horns away without any pain relief. I didn’t know what burning flesh smelled like and how much it could cause someone to cough and their eyes to burn.
I was unaware that cows are milked twice a day, every day, and continuously impregnated to produce that milk until they collapse and are slaughtered for cheap beef. And that their babies are ripped from their sides at birth so that humans can drink the milk meant for the calves. I didn’t know that dairy industry workers routinely attach metal devices to cows’ hips and drag them with tractors through dirt and feces.
It is imperative that the world is made aware of the horrors of dairy farming through undercover investigations. The things I witnessed were so horrible that I could no longer endure seeing the atrocities at one more dairy factory farm and I decided to leave the field. Other investigators will continue where I left off.
I’m still fighting for animals - now, as Deputy Director of Investigations at Animal Outlook, working to ensure that our investigations continue to shine a light on the abuses that animal agribusiness so desperately tries so keep in the dark.
You can fight for animals too, by removing dairy products from your diet and keeping animal products off your plate. You can change the world for these innocent cows.
As a non-profit organization, Animal Outlook relies on donations from caring, generous people like you. Every dollar matters. Your support makes a world of difference to farmed animals.
