PETA: Cow Abuse at Land O' Lake Supplier

The animal rights group, PETA, has released undercover video depicting animal abuse to dairy cows at a Pennsylvania farm that supplies milk to Minnesota based Land O’ Lakes, Inc.

The video shot during the course of several months depicts filthy conditions in both the barn and milking parlor along with cows suffering from severe illness and infections.

Daphna Nachminovich, PETA Vice President of Cruelty Investigations said at a St. Paul news conference, “Just the deplorable conditions that the animals were kept in made for not just cruelty, but also a health concern for the consumer.”

The video and pictures were captured on the Deitz family dairy farm in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. A former employee of the farm provided the video to PETA after repeated attempts to get the farm to take better care of its cows. On September 22nd, the whistle blower filed in Pennsylvania magistrate court fifteen summary charges of animal neglect and abuse against the dairy farm.

The farm is one of 3000 suppliers of milk to the Land O’ Lakes dairy co-operative. Nachminovich says the video should serve as a warning to Land O’Lakes and its customers. “We are alleging that there is a good chance that milk coming out from this farm could be contaminated given the conditions that the cows were living in, that’s all we can allege,” said Nachminovich.

Land O’Lakes in a written statement said, “Land O'Lakes is strongly committed to the proper care and humane treatment of animals, and we take any such allegations of animal mistreatment extremely seriously. Land O'Lakes does not own cows. Our milk supply comes from members who are independent owners and operators of dairy farms. However, we do take any allegations related to animal treatment among our suppliers very seriously and are looking aggressively into this situation.”

PETA wants Land O’Lakes to abide by a 12-point plan it has developed to ensure the safe and ethical treatment of dairy cows. Details of the plan are listed on www.peta.org . Land O’Lakes says it, too supports the cause. In it’s statement, the cooperative said, “Land O'Lakes supports efforts to develop national sound animal care guidelines and to urge producers to adopt these guidelines to ensure humane treatment of animals by all segments of the agriculture industry.