By WMBD and Blake Haas
NORMAL – From Chicago to Los Angeles, New York City to Atlanta, protests happened around the country after an undercover video was recently released showing what many are calling the “inhumane treatment of animals” at Indiana’s Fair Oaks Farms.
And as a result, here at home, dairy selections might be much more limited.
Over the span of three months, animal recovery mission said in its video that they recorded abuse after abuse. Calves and cows appeared to be hit, choked and burned.
Nonprofit animal welfare group Animal Recovery Mission had an investigator go undercover as a calf care employee at the farm in 2018.
Fair Oaks Farms said the men in the video appear to be four employees and a third-party truck driver. The farm said none of those people work at the farm anymore. One of those employees was fired Tuesday and others were charged Monday.
Several stores already say they’re pulling Fairlife products off the shelves thanks to this video, including Jewel-Osco in Normal.
The store issued a statement, saying: “At Jewel-Osco we strive to maintain high animal welfare standards across all areas of our business, and work in partnership with our vendors to ensure those standards are upheld. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Fair Oaks Farms is suspending its delivery service for a week to help implement new policies and training and to protect its drivers from harassment after the video’s release.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
