If a picture’s worth a thousand words then what’s a video worth? In the age of you-tube, videos are all around us. With the click of a button we can be watching videos on a million different subjects from a million different people. But how do we know if what we’re watching is the actual truth? This was a problem recently faced by a Jury in Union County, Ohio.
On May 27, 2010 a video was released by the animal right’s group Mercy For Animals (MFA) that depicted horrific animal cruelty at Conklin Dairy Farms (MFA, 2010). Most of the video was of one of the hired farm workers, Billy Joe Gregg. However, there was about a 5 second clip halfway through the 3 minute and 43 second video, which showed the farm owner Gary Conklin kicking a downed cow. After the release of the video Mr. Gregg was immediately fired from the farm and both him and Mr. Conklin were charged with animal abuse.
The issue with this video is not the nature of the footage but the nature in which it was presented. Dr. Bernard Rollin, Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, stated: "This is probably the most gratuitous, sustained, sadistic animal abuse I have ever seen. The video depicts calculated, deliberate cruelty, based not on momentary rage but on taking pleasure through causing pain to cows and calves who are defenseless (MFA, 2010)." The video showed graphic and horrific abuse, but was all of the footage of abuse or was some of it taken out of context? The video showed less than four minutes of footage that was taken over a four-week period. That’s only a minute of footage per week that the filming took place.
The five-second clip that showed the owner, Mr. Conklin, kicking the downed cow can easily be misconstrued as abuse with the context of the video. However, what he was doing was actually not abuse. To people who have never been around large animals it may seem very cruel to be kicking a cow, but in some cases it is justified. According to Ohio State University Veterinarian Doc Sanders, “After calving, a cow that is downed may sometimes develop a metabolic disease that causes her to not want to get up. The cow can be treated for the metabolic disease, however, if she is not up within 12 hours of calving she can develop muscle cramping which will eventually cause her to never be able to get up. Motivational speeches don’t work on cattle so they need stronger encouragement to get up. The hide of a cow is about as thick as the sole of a shoe so a love tap isn’t going to get the point across. In order to get the cow up it is best to start by kneeing the cow gently in the side and progressing from there to kicking it with the toe of a boot in the rear and occasionally using a small electric shot from a cattle prod. It is essential to get the cow up or she may die (OFBF, 2010).” After learning this is what Mr. Conklin was doing the footage seems much more logical and humane. This is why assumptions made based on a small amount of evidence can be very dangerous.
This is not the first example of an animal rights group seemingly misconstruing video evidence or otherwise. In March 2008 a similar event occurred when the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) released a video of supposed animal abuse at a New Mexico livestock auction (HSUS, 2008). The HSUS created such a press frenzy that by the time the New Mexico Livestock Board (NMLB) had a chance to look at the actual video taken, not the spliced version shown by the press, the public had already made up their mind despite the fact that the NMLB cleared the auction of all accusations after seeing the video, which the HSUS sent to them five weeks after they released their version. Also, The NMLB report stated that there was at least one instance where the HSUS investigator had the opportunity to help relieve the suffering of an animal but “apparently chose not to assist, in order to take compelling, but nevertheless misleading, video footage (NMLB, 2008).”
The Conklin case is very similar to this. In the Conklin trial the MFA filmmaker openly admitted to joining in the apparent abuse and stabbing animals with a pitchfork alongside Mr. Gregg. He claimed he did this to, “maintain his cover (Kick, 2010).” The animal rights activist filmed the supposedly sickening animal abuse for a month before reporting what he saw. It seems strange that someone so motivated about protecting animals could endure a month of filming and abusing animals himself before reporting to anyone. According to Union County Processing Attorney David Phillips, “As soon as the investigator and MFA became aware of Gregg’s actions, someone should have notified law enforcement or the humane society. Had they done so, much of the abuse at the hands of Billy Joe Gregg shown on the video never would have happened, and the animals would have been spared (Kick, 2010).” Based on the footage taken it would seem that he could have gotten the same amount of footage in a much shorter amount of time. However, the Grand Jury determined that the filmmaker would not face any criminal charges.
Another twist to what appears to be such a clear-cut case is that the Conklin Dairy Farm was regularly inspected by the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The state inspected the farm three times in the past year and found the conditions satisfactory. The farm was inspected this often because they were recently approved as a “Grade A facility.” The milk from such a facility can be used for anything commercially. According to Tony Forshey, Ohio’s state veterinarian and a member of the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, Conklin runs a quality operation and the behavior shown in the video is “not normal” for what is done on the farm. According to Forshey, “Everything on that video is just horrible. The injuries that would have been done to what appeared to be healthy animals would be broken bones, bruising of the muscles, tremendous pain, even death (Zachariah and Johnson, 2010).” Gary Conklin, the farm’s owner, was quoted as saying, “Our family takes the care of our cows and calves very seriously. The video shows animal care that is clearly inconsistent with the high standards we set for our farm and its workers, and we find the specific mistreatment shown on the video to be reprehensible and unacceptable.”
Another interesting turn of events is that this video had very interesting timing. The Ohio agriculture industry was in a heated debate over animal care issues. The Humane Society of the United States was campaigning to put a constitutional amendment on the fall ballot in Ohio that would require certain reforms within the agriculture industry including changes to animal confinement standards. The Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board was charged with reviewing the possible changes. It is curious that MFA would release a video of graphic animal abuse on an Ohio dairy farm at a critical time in Ohio’s political campaigning. Also, it seems quite ironic that an undercover animal right’s activist was hired by Conklin Dairy just a few months after Billy Joe Gregg. Finally, this was a regularly inspected facility and they passed their last inspection with no problems. The abuse that took place in the video clearly would have left very obvious signs of it on the animals. It could all be coincidental, but when too many coincidences show up it gets one thinking.
When Mark Twain observed that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its boots on, he was ahead of his time. Lies are everywhere these days, the hard part is distinguishing them from the truth. Today there is more gray area than ever and it seems the agriculture industry is coming under fire more than ever. Animal right’s activists are on the offensive against agriculture throughout the country, it’s about time we put our boots on and stopped this nonsense. We must all be careful about the things we read, hear and see because there is almost always another viewpoint on the issue. Policy and decisions are made on sound information; we can make the best policies and decisions if we choose to double check the facts, otherwise, we are the blind leading the blind through a twisted and convoluted arena of choices. If we are to truly stop animal cruelty, we must together, choose to see all the angles and possibilities before attacking what may be a truly innocent and life saving practice for the animal.
Link to the video:
References:
HSUS. 2008. The HSUS Exposes More Appalling Abuses of Dairy Cows at Livestock
Auction in New Undercover Investigation. Humane Society of the United
States Factory Farming Campaign. http://www.hsus.org/farm/news
/ournews/dairy_cow_abuses_new_mexico_auction_062508.html
Kick, Chris. 2010. Animal abuser, animal rights activist fooled dairy farmer with
seemingly good backgrounds. Farm and Dairy Magazine.
http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/animal-abuser-animal-rights-activist-
fooled-dairy-farmer-with-seemingly-good-backgrounds/15300.html
MFA. 2010. Ohio Dairy Farm Brutality. Mercy For Animals Special Investigation.
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/ohdairy/
NMLB. 2008. Investigative Review Portales Livestock Auction. New Mexico
Livestock Board.
http://www.nmlbonline.com/documents/080814InvRev.pdf
OFBF. 2010. Is kicking a cow cruel? Ohio Farm Bureau Federation Radio News
Service. http://ofbf.org/media-and-publications/listen/6/464/
Zachariah, H., A. Johnson. 2010. Dairy-farm worker fired, arrested for video. The
Columbus Dispatch. http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news
/stories/2010/05/27/dairy-farm-worker-fired-arrested-over-video.html
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