Undercover video shows cows beaten at Ohio farm

By MEGHAN BARR, Associated Press Writer Meghan Barr, Associated Press Writer – 16 mins ago

CLEVELAND – An animal welfare group says a video it shot shows workers at an Ohio dairy farm beating cows with crowbars and stabbing them with pitchforks.

The Chicago-based nonprofit group Mercy For Animals says the video was recorded in an undercover investigation at Conklin Dairy Farms Inc.

The Plain City, Ohio-based company says it won't condone animal abuse. It says the video shows animal care inconsistent with the high standards it has set for its farm.

Mercy For Animals publicizes what it calls cruel practices in the dairy, meat and egg industries and promotes a vegan diet.

The video shows workers holding newborn calves down and stomping on their heads. It also shows one worker wiring a cow's nose to a metal bar near the ground and repeatedly beating it with a bar while it bleeds.

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Online:

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Graphic video released to The Associated Press by an animal welfare group shows workers at a dairy farm beating cows with crowbars, stabbing them with pitchforks and punching them in their heads.

The video was recorded in an undercover investigation at Conklin Dairy Farms Inc., said Mercy For Animals, a not-for-profit group that publicizes what it calls cruel practices in the dairy, meat and egg industries and promotes a vegan diet.

The video shows workers holding down newborn calves and stomping on their heads. It shows one worker wiring a cow's nose to a metal bar near the ground and repeatedly beating it with another bar while it bleeds.

Conklin Dairy Farms, based in Plain City, didn't immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment Tuesday.

Mercy For Animals, based in Chicago, said it planned to release the cow video to the public Wednesday. Last year it released a video showing workers at an Iowa egg hatchery tossing male chicks into a grinder, but industry groups said such instantaneous euthanasia was a common practice because male chicks can't lay eggs or be raised quickly enough to be sold for meat.

Mercy For Animals' executive director, Nathan Runkle, said the cow video was shot between April 28 and Sunday by an undercover worker at the dairy, about 25 miles northwest of Columbus. He said the documented abuse violates Ohio's anti-animal cruelty statute.

The group presented the video and the evidence it collected to the prosecutor's office in Marysville. The prosecutor's office didn't respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.

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Online:

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100526/...VyY292ZXJ2aQ--

i hope somebody beat those M.F.i cant stand to see that i want to know where this place is and can you get the names of the punks that did that to these poor cows,thats red neck farmer for ya,and its sad to say its all over with these hill billy's,they were raised being beat and molested by their daddy's and brothers so they do it to the cows intil they have children of their own to beat and molest,im sure they were having sex with the cows also we need to put a stop to this il help and get involved and donate and spread this video around to friends for support and we might take a trip to Ohio and give these red neck hill billy's a run for their money,cowards thats what they are incest breeds all of them are but my crow bar will be bigger and my .............never mind im mad enofe got to research to do.