A major pizza maker is cutting ties with a Wisconsin dairy farm because of a video showing workers at the farm mistreating cows.
The animal rights group, Mercy for Animals, secretly recorded the footage.
The group is demanding that prosecutors charge the workers with animal cruelty, and that the pizza company hold its suppliers to high standards.
DiGiorno frozen pizza has been buying cheese from a dairy cooperative, called Foremost Farms.
Some of its milk comes from Wiese Brothers, a dairy farm in Greenleaf, WI – about 15 miles south of Green Bay. The facility houses 4,500 cows.
In October, Mercy for Animals sent an undercover worker to the farm, fitted with a hidden camera. The group says it chose the site at random. The camera captured hours of farm workers yelling at cows, and hurting them.
(Warning: This video contains graphic content.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UaN6wZ1cBA
Mercy for Animals spokesman Ari Solomon says the video shows "workers viciously kicking, beating and violently whipping cows in the face and on their bodies, sick or injured cows suffering from open wounds, infections and injuries left to suffer without proper veterinary care, workers dragging cows by their fragile legs and necks, using chains attached to a tractor.”
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
DiGiorno’s owner, Nestle, issued a statement, saying it’s “deeply saddened” by what it saw in the video, and will stop buying cheese made with milk from Wiese Brothers.
The farm released a statement, saying it won’t tolerate animal abuse. Wiese brothers says it’s fired two people and is enacting new policies. One requires supervisors to shadow employees periodically, without notice.
