Ohio dairy farm worker charged with cruelty based on animal-rights video
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An Ohio dairy farm worker was charged with 12 counts of cruelty to animals after a welfare group released a video it says shows him and others beating cows with crowbars and poking them with pitchforks.
The video was recorded in an undercover investigation at Conklin Dairy Farms Inc., said Mercy For Animals, a nonprofit that publicizes what it calls cruel practices in the dairy, meat and egg industries and promotes a vegan diet.
The video shows workers holding down newborn calves and stomping on their heads. It shows one worker wiring a cow’s nose to a metal bar near the ground and repeatedly beating it with another bar while it bleeds.
The charged worker, Billy Joe Gregg Jr., 25, was jailed in Mechanicsburg and was to be arraigned Thursday, Marysville prosecutor Tim Aslaner said. Each cruelty to animals count he faces has a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $750 fine.
Conklin Dairy Farms, a fourth-generation family operation based in Plain City, condemned the video footage and said Gregg was fired Wednesday. The farm said it was cooperating with authorities. The sheriff’s office said the investigation was ongoing and may result in further charges.
-- Associated Press