Do These Look Like ‘Happy’ Cows to You? Disturbing Footage From a Whole Foods Dairy Supplier

“Humane.” “Grass-Fed.” “Regenerative.” “Organic.” These are the buzzwords that Alexandre Family Farm uses to market the milk it steals from cows. Our friends at Farm Forward worked with whistleblowers to release damning evidence of workers dragging, cutting, starving, and killing cows at “Certified Humane” and “USDA Organic” Whole Foods dairy supplier Alexandre Family Farm. Take a look:

What Did Whistleblowers Document at Alexandre Family Farm?

Farm Forward’s report details many instances of abuse, neglect, and mistreatment of cows at Alexandre Family Farm, including the following:

• Workers dragged a cow across more than 150 feet of concrete and gravel.

• After the facility ran out of hay for several days, all 800 cows at Alexandre Family Farms tried to reach the feed simultaneously once it had been delivered. More than 40 cows were trampled to death, and 20 other cows were injured and ultimately euthanized due to injuries.

• More than a dozen calves were found dead in just one day while confined alone to plastic pens.

• A sick or injured cow was left outside, lying in a field for two weeks, slowly dying until a worker finally shot her.

• A worker used a dirty pocket knife to cut off a large portion of a cow’s udder without any pain medicine because an infection within her teat was blocking her milk flow.

• A female cow with eye cancer received no treatment except for an eye patch glued directly to her face, which investigators removed.

‘Humane’ Labels Mean Nothing

When humans use animals for profit, it always causes suffering, regardless of the label slapped on animals’ flesh and bodily fluids sold in stores. Cows are repeatedly and forcibly impregnated to produce milk. They make milk for the same reason that humans do—to feed their babies. Workers separate calves from their mothers shortly after birth—and often confine them alone—on every dairy farm to steal their milk and sell it. No matter if the cows’ milk is labeled “organic,” “raw,” “antibiotic-free,” or “humane,” mother and baby cows suffer so that it can reach store shelves.

This isn’t the first time that a meat, egg, or dairy company has used misleading marketing like this and duped consumers into thinking that animals didn’t suffer. Whole Foods has been made aware that Alexandre Family Farm neglects and abuses cows, yet it continues to sell the farm’s products, making it no better than any other chain that sells stolen milk.

As part of PETA’s initiative against humane-washing ploys, we are campaigning against the Whole Foods–backed Global Animal Partnership and urging the three “animal protection” organizations that have representatives sitting on its board of directors to step down: the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Compassion in World Farming. Sign our petition, and remind these organizations through polite social media comments that “humane” labels are a misleading sham.