No dairy in British Columbia is willing to buy milk from
Chilliwack Cattle Sales after a video depicting animal abuse hit the news last
week.
That means it will likely be dumped into the farm's manure system.
It's a shameful and needless waste of a highly-nutritious product simply because companies want to avoid guilt by association.
Saputo Inc. had been buying the milk, but said it won’t buy
any more after the video showed eight employees inflicting “horrifying” abuse
with sticks and chains.
Now the B.C. milk marketing board says none of the other
dairies in the province will buy the milk.
Animal welfare groups are calling on the government to lay
criminal charges against the workers.
The family that owns the dairy fired them
immediately after seeing the video.
Jeff Kooyman, the principal owner, is the one who called the
animal abuse “horrifying to watch” and said the family has “zero tolerance” for
animal abuse.
He has asked the B.C. Society for Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals to help train his staff.
Spokesmen for dairy-farmer organizations have unanimously
condemned the animal abuse captured by video for the Mercy for Animals activist
organization.
It has also released underground videos from a hatchery at
Hanover, Ont., and from turkey-breeding farms owned by Hybrid Turkeys of
Kitchener.
