Relationship Severed after Video Depicting Animal Abuse Made Public
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
After a video surfaced last week, showing alleged animal abuse at a B.C. dairy farm, Saputo which makes Dairyland products, stopped buying milk from the farm in question.
The animal activist group Mercy for Animals Canada, released an undercover video showing cows being abused at a B.C. dairy farm - Chilliwack Cattle Sales, Canada’s largest dairy farm. The abusers (eight of them) were fired from the farm.
Shortly after the video was released to the public, Mercy for Animals launched a petition that received more than 100,000 signatures, asking Saputo to “stop supporting horrific animal cruelty,” which left the company little choice but to drop Chilliwack Cattle Sales from its milk suppliers list.
“We will not accept milk from the BC Milk Marketing Board supplied by this farm until we are fully satisfied that strict animal welfare practices are in place,” Saputo said in a June 16 release.
The company also made the point to explain that it is required by law to purchase milk from the provincial milk marketing boards, and does not own or operate any farms in the country.