Dairy Calf Abuse Takes Place on a Federally Subsidized Farm

ou may have seen the horrible news (and video footage) yesterday about workers at Conklin Dairy Farms abusing calves—including punching them, kicking downed cows, using pitchforks... and more.

The footage, filmed by undercover investigators with Mercy for Animals, is from a farm that since 1995, "has received almost $36,000 in federal farm subsidies, according to a database of farm subsidies maintained by the Environmental Working Group. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave Conklin Farms almost $12,000," an AP report says.

If you watch the video, it's horrifying. If it's going to serve any purpose, it can be a wake-up call as another reason to abstain from dairy. If you're not going to give it up completely, then use it as motivation to know where your food comes from—as Matt wrote at TreeHugger, "Know who you're buying it from and how they raise their animals--thankfully, not everyone behaves this way towards their livestock."

It's also reason to learn more about other effects of large subsidies (check out the kickAAS campaign—kick all agricultural subsidies), and to keep pressure on Obama to follow through on his talk about ending big farm subsidies.

And it's reason to support small farmers and to take a little more action—action alerts from the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment are a good start. Or maybe take a shot at working or interning on a farm yourself.