More Information

An undercover investigator with Mercy For Animals documented horrific animal abuse at Winchester Dairy in New Mexico, a milk supplier to Leprino Foods — the world’s largest mozzarella cheese producer. Leprino Foods is a primary cheese supplier to Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John’s restaurants nationwide. The hidden-camera video footage shows:

• Workers viciously kicking and punching cows, and stabbing them with screwdrivers, causing bloody wounds and injuries
• Cows being violently whipped in their faces and bodies with chains and metal wires
• Workers maliciously shocking sick and injured cows and dragging them with tractors
• Sick or injured cows suffering from open wounds, infections, and injuries left to suffer without proper veterinary care

Expert Opinions

After reviewing the undercover footage, renowned animal welfare experts Drs. Bernard Rollin and Terry Engle and Mr. William Wailes from the animal science department at Colorado State University wrote: “Of all the atrocity videos I have examined on behalf of various animal advocacy groups, this one may well depict the most prolonged, and severest pain being inflicted on innocent, non-ambulatory dairy cattle. … It is clear that the workers enjoy this infliction of pain and suffering, and even make remarks to that effect. … Of equal concern is the overall lack of training in animal care husbandry practices as well as in the importance to the social ethic of these types of unacceptable animal abuse. We all hold the owners/managers equally responsible for this egregious behavior!”

Dairy’s Dark Side

Treated as mere milk-producing machines, cows exploited and killed for milk and cheese endure lives of near constant misery and deprivation.

In order to keep producing a steady supply of milk, the cows are repeatedly impregnated. Several times a day, dairy cows are hooked by their udders to electric milking machines that can cause them to suffer electrical shocks, painful lesions, and mastitis (an infection of the udders). Some spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors; others are crammed into massive mud lots.

Cows have a natural lifespan of nearly 25 years, but the stress caused by factory farm conditions leads to disease, lameness, and reproductive problems that render cows worthless to the dairy industry by the time they are four or five years old.

These highly intelligent and social animals suffer unimaginable abuse from the time they are born and ripped from their mothers' sides until they are so physically worn out from repeated pregnancies and constant milk production that they are sold for slaughter.

Although unconscionable cruelty and violence are standard practice in the dairy industry, caring consumers can help end the needless suffering of cows by choosing vegan alternatives to milk, cheese, and ice cream. Please visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.