Undercover Investigation Reveals Cows Suffer for Land O’Lakes

The following documents what happened to a few of the cows who lived and died miserably at the dairy factory farm during PETA’s undercover investigation. Learn more by viewing additional investigation photos.

• Cow #12 was found to be suffering from hoof rot, a painful, contagious bacterial infection of the foot. The cow’s right front hoof later became detached from the remainder of her foot, causing her a great deal of pain.
• Cow #36‘s gangrenous, infected teat ruptured while she was being milked by machine. Workers were told to “amputate” it by binding it with a tight elastic band. The cow’s condition deteriorated over the course of 11 days, until she finally died.
• Cow #95, who can be seen in PETA’s video, died within four days of giving birth. She began suffering postpartum complications, which caused her to go down. Within a day or so, she was found lying outside, deprived of food, water, and shelter. As temperatures soared that day, the whistleblower asked if the cow could be taken inside a barn, but the farm’s owner refused. The cow was left to languish in the sun—with no shade—and was covered with flies.
• Cow #506, who can be seen in PETA’s video, gave birth and then collapsed. A day later, she was found flailing and struggling outside without food, water, or shelter from freezing temperatures―the thrashing of her head had carved a trench in the ground under her face. She was eventually shot and killed.
• Cow #729 went down in a deep slurry of urine and feces. The farm’s owner stated that the cow was suffering from clostridium—a bacterial infection from which recovery, even with treatment, is rare, but he refused to put the cow out of her misery.
• Cow #788 wasted away for five days—growing thinner and thinner and struggling to breathe—until the farm’s co-owner shot and killed her.
• When cow #826 resisted standing—which cows in pain often do—the farm’s co-owner electro-shocked her to force her to stand up. Her condition continued to decline over 21 days, until she was shot and killed.
• Cow #879, whose body condition scored less than 1 on a 5-point scale, went down in inches of muck, urine, and fecal matter, and her body was covered with waste. She is believed to have been shot and killed.

To help cows on factory farms like the ones documented here, please write to Land O’Lakes today.