Dear Friend,

My name is Erin, and I sent you a message earlier this month about my time working as an undercover investigator on industrialized factory farms for Animal Outlook. 

I have now stepped out of the shadows to shine a light on the stomach-churning horrors I witnessed in late 2019 while working at Dick Van Dam Dairy, a massive cow milk factory in California. 

Will you help me tell the stories of the cows suffering in the barbaric dairy industry?

At this facility and so many others just like it, cows aren’t viewed as sentient beings. They produce the “product” that  consumers want - milk. To get that product, workers forcibly impregnate these innocent cows, and instead of allowing them to feed their babies, they roughly separate them just days after birth. The male calves, who are seen as useless “byproducts” since they don’t produce milk, often languish and die. 

I knew I had to try to save at least one.

Near the end of my time at Dick Van Dam, the owner allowed me to have two male calves. Because so many calves died shortly after birth, I had to wait for two who would survive long enough to have a chance at making it out alive. Even when my body and mind felt more and more worn down every single day, I continued on, holding onto the hope that at least two calves would escape this suffering. 

I checked the calf area every day. I remember my heart breaking every time I would come back to find another one dead in the dirt, their bodies left to decompose in the same pens their mothers were kept in. I remember touching newborn calves and petting their sides while whispering to them to hold on for just a couple days. 

So many calves didn’t make it. Will you help fight for the calves who never have a chance? As part of Animal Outlook’s 25th anniversary, all donations made up to $125,000 by December 31, 2020 will be matched, meaning your donation will go twice as far in exposing the ugly truth of factory farms. 

After what felt like an eternity, two calves lived long enough to rescue, and I was overcome with mixed emotions. On the one hand, these two had a chance at a long and happy life. On the other hand, there were so many more I could not save, and that broke my heart. 

We took them to safety at Animal Place Sanctuary, where they were named Hank and Samuel. I had such an immense feeling of hope once Hank and Samuel were freed from the factory farm, knowing that for my last investigation, I wouldn’t be the only one free to walk away. All three of us were escaping the soul-crushing world of animal agriculture together, even with all the odds stacked against us. 

Sadly, Hank was too sick and did not survive. But Samuel did, and he will live out his life in a beautiful place under the sanctuary’s care, with others like him, and teach people what it’s like when a calf is simply allowed to be a calf.

Although I am no longer working as an undercover investigator, I still fight for animals like Hank as Deputy Director of Investigations at Animal Outlook. It breaks my heart that he came so close to living a full life free from cruelty, but wasn’t quite strong enough to get there.