A new Compassion Over Killing investigation has once again exposed extreme abuse inside the dairy industry. The footage was recorded at a Pennsylvania factory farm whose truck we followed to one of the largest ice cream plants in the world, churning out Dreyer’s and Edy’s ice cream for the world’s largest food and dairy company: Nestlé. TAKE ACTION TODAY: Join us in urging Nestlé to end the cruel, barbaric removal of calves’ horns and scoop out more vegan food!
COK’s new video filmed inside Martin Farms reveals workers hoisting cows who were unable to walk or stand by their hips with metal clamps and dragging them by tractor. A manager shot one “downer” cow -- unable to walk or stand -- in the head, who remained conscious for almost a minute before the fatal shot. Other “downer” cows were even killed and butchered on site, and their meat was distributed to workers in garbage bags.
When alerted to this abuse, Nestlé responded that it immediately severed ties with Martin Farms. However, the company has still failed to address the systemic nature of the issues COK’s investigation uncovered.
The investigation reveals brutal yet everyday practices hidden inside dairy farms across the country: bloody hoof trimming; the heartbreaking separation of day-old calves from their loving mothers; and hot irons being burned into calves’ flesh to permanently destroy their horns and growth tissue in a cruel process known as “dehorning” or “disbudding.” At Martin Farms, calves are tied up as a red-hot iron is pressed down on the sensitive nerves in their heads for several minutes—without any pain relief.
To most of the dairy industry, this suffering is considered “standard practice”—the hidden price of producing cheap milk for millions of consumers. But in 2014, Nestlé announced an animal welfare policy that was lauded as one of the most progressive of its time, including a commitment to eliminate dehorning of older calves entirely, as well as ending the painful removal of horn tissue of younger calves (disbudding) without anesthesia. Yet the manufacturing giant aimed for only 80 percent compliance in its supply chain by 2020—a full six years after issuing this commitment.
And even with an anesthetic, studies have found that these vulnerable young calves, often only weeks old, respond with elevated stress hormones once the medications wear off. And the excruciating pain from having their sensitive horns and horn tissue burned from their heads can last days or even weeks.
Farms could prevent this unnecessary and terrifying mutilation entirely by choosing cows who do not grow horns, as has been recommended by the American Veterinary Medical Association. But the dairy industry is dragging its feet, with only 2 percent of farms making the switch. As the world’s largest food and dairy company, Nestlé has the ability—and the responsibility—to push the dairy industry forward by eliminating the cruel removal of calves’ horns and horn tissue for its products once and for all.
Millions of consumers are discovering the best way we can spare gentle cows from abuse in the dairy industry: keeping the milk they produce for their babies out of our shopping carts! If Nestlé truly wants to maintain its role as a global food leader, it must help pave the way for the plant-based revolution by shifting its supply chain significantly toward vegan ingredients.
Join us in urging Nestlé to take a slice out of milk’s misery by immediately ending the gruesome and unnecessary disbudding and dehorning of calves in its supply chain—and churning out more vegan products, starting with dairy-free Dreyer’s and vegan Edy’s ice cream. Sign the petition today!