Nearly two years ago – June 2014 – animal abuse was uncovered at a local dairy farm. Employees at a large dairy farm just 20 minutes away from our farm were filmed beating and inhumanely treating cows. The news rocked our industry, disgusting farmers and consumers alike. I had begun a Facebook page for the purpose of giving our consumers a look behind our figurative barn doors just a few months before this was aired, and so I shared my thoughts with this post: https://www.facebook.com/creeksidedairy/posts/304689016360792

Flash-forward to yesterday, and the employees that were involved in the abuse as well as the owners of the farm have been charged with 16 counts of cruelty to animals. (An additional four counts have been laid against a few of the employees under the Wildlife Act for an incident involving a pigeon.) As per CTV news: 6 employees have been “charged with causing distress and failing to protect an animal from distress”. Three of these “are also charged with two other counts relating to kicking and hitting a cow. A seventh worker is also charged, but the SPCA hasn’t revealed with which count or counts.

Marcie Moriarty [chief enforcement officer of the SPCA] said the investigation also marks the first time a B.C. company has been held accountable for acts of cruelty on a farm.

“We are extremely pleased that in addition to laying charges against the individual employees, Crown has also held the company and its directors accountable for this unacceptable treatment of the animals,” she said.” In addition to this, the farm owners “are all charged with causing or permitting animals to be in distress and of another count, which requires people responsible for animals to protect them from circumstances likely to cause them distress.” Marcie stated.

Let me be absolutely clear: Abuse to dairy cows, or to any animal, is NEVER, EVER okay. As dairy farmers, we are committed to stellar animal care, and we are emotionally attached to the gentle giants with whom we spend our days. We treat our cows well because we know that a well-cared-for cow is a happy cow, and happy cows are productive cows. But beyond that, the most important reason that we treat our cows well is because it simply is the right thing to do. Period.

At the time that the abuse was uncovered, Dairy Farmers of Canada were working towards implementing the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle as mandatory on all dairy farms. This Code has been praised by animal welfare groups as the best and most comprehensive of its type in the world. Instead of waiting for the implementation of the Code over the following few years, our provincial milk marketing board decided to make adherence to the Code mandatory on all BC dairy farms beginning October 1, 2014, thereby demonstrating to our consumers that the milk they buy in the stores is produced ethically and responsibly, especially in light of this incredibly unsettling incident.

In light of these new developments, I’d like to assure our consumers that our family and all of the dairy farm families across Canada remain firmly committed to proper animal care. We love our cows and we treat them well. For proof of this, I invite you to take a look at the posts I have shared on my Facebook page (find it on the left hand margin of this blog post)  over the past two years. Another great source of transparent information about Canadian dairy farming can be found on my colleague Farmer Tim’s Facebook page. Along with our fellow dairy farmers of Canada, we condemn in the strongest possible terms any abuse to any animals and we look forward to repairing and maintaining the public’s confidence in our industry.