The images in the following program are very sensitive and may be as disturbing to viewers as they were to us. However, we have to show the truth about cruelty to animals.

Today on Stop Animal Cruelty, we bring you undercover footage taken by Mercy For Animals that exposes the absolutely horrific conditions hidden behind the walls of factory farms.

Mercy For Animals is a US-based non-profit animal advocacy organization that was founded in 1999 by Mr. Nathan Runkle. Since then, the group has grown tremendously and now has over 35,000 members and supporters. As one of the leading organizations of its kind in the United States, Mercy For Animals focuses on research, undercover investigations, rescue missions, and community outreach and advertising campaigns to raise public awareness of animal suffering and the need to immediately end it.

The first Mercy For Animals video we will present excerpts from is entitled “Hatchery Horrors.” Some may not associate egg production with violence, abuse and killing, but that is the reality of this unconscionable industry.

Hatchery Horrors

The footage you are about to see was recorded with a hidden camera at the world’s largest hatchery for egg-laying breed chicks. For two weeks our Mercy For Animals investigator covertly documented the systematic cruelty chicks at this hatchery are subjected to.

These workers called “sexers,” roughly separate the male chicks from the females. These male chicks are worthless to the industry, because they will not lay eggs and will not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. These male chicks are killed by being dropped into a grinding machine while still alive. Such killing methods are standard within the industry. Nearly 150,000 male chicks meet their deaths this way each day at the facility.

This machine uses a laser to remove part of the chicks’ beaks. Chicks are placed head first into this rotating machine. Birds’ beaks are filled with nerve endings; this procedure can cause both acute and chronic pain. This industrial machine separates newly hatched chicks from their egg shells. Chicks are roughly dumped onto moving conveyer belts, which haul them off to be sorted, de-beaked, and for the males, killed.

Many chicks are injured and killed by the sorting machine. This chick fell through the sorting machine, and was left to die in a heap of egg shells on the factory floor. Still alive, this chick fell through the sorting machine, and was sent through a scalding wash cycle.

Some of them get caught in there. (Yes) Some of them get on the floor and get wet and then they’re no good. That end of the machine is for washing trays. And so if they’re stuck in there, they get washed out and that’s how come they’re in there.

Workers roughly handle the animals with little regard for their welfare. These workers roughly sort the chicks, searching for sick, injured and deformed birds. The cruelty you have witnessed is not isolated but rather inherent and widespread within the entire industry. Please remember these chicks the next time you sit down to a meal. You can help end this needless cruelty by adopting a compassionate vegan diet.

The next Mercy For Animals video we present excerpts from is entitled “Dairy’s Dark Side.” The treatment of the gentle cows at this dairy operation is extremely heartless and deeply distressing.

Dairy’s Dark Side

A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation takes you behind the closed doors of New York’s largest dairy factory farm, exposing cows too sick or injured to stand, calves having their horns burned off and tails cut off without pain killers. Cows suffering from untreated infections and open wounds, new born calves being dragged away from their mothers, and cows subjected to overcrowded and filthy living conditions.

Here a worker uses a hot cautery device to painfully burn off the calf’s horns, a common dairy industry practice known as disbudding. No anesthesia was used to reduce the calf’s pain during this harsh and invasive mutilation. The worker forcefully shoves his finger into her eye in a cruel attempt to restrain and control her. This calf’s suffering is evident by her vocal bellowing, labored breathing, and frantic attempts to escape.

Tail docking involves cutting through the calf’s sensitive skin and tail bones. The American Veterinarian Medical Association has condemned tail docking as unnecessary and painful. Cows with bloody open wounds, puss filled infections, swollen joints and other injuries were a common sight on this factory farm.

This cow suffers from a prolapsed uterus. MFA’s (Mercy For Animals) investigator brought this cow’s painful condition to the attention of co-workers. Yet she was left to suffer for over two weeks. Many wounds were caked with feces. No veterinary care was apparently provided to most of these injured animals as evident by the advanced stages of their injuries.

Puss drips from this infected wound. Cows too sick or injured to walk are called “downers.” At this factory farm many downed cows were left to suffer for days or weeks. Tracks can be seen in the straw surrounding this downed cow, evidence of her prolonged struggle to stand. This exhausted cow stumbles to the ground on her way to the milking area. Workers kick and hit her as they force her to stand.

We’ll return after this brief message with more excerpts from “Dairy’s Dark Side,” an undercover investigation of the barbaric dairy industry. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

This is the Stop Animal Cruelty series on Supreme Master Television. Our program today presents footage from undercover investigations conducted by Mercy For Animals.

We focus on protecting farmed animals because this is the area of animal abuse in our society where the largest number of animals are killed and exploited. Over nine billion cows, pigs and chickens in the United States are killed for food every year. If we look at the global level we’re talking about over 50 billion farmed animals!

And each one of these animals are unique individuals with their own personalities and needs and interests. So Mercy For Animals sets out to expose the cruelty that’s taking place in factory farms and in slaughterhouses and inspire consumers to adopt a healthy and compassionate plant based diet.

Recently a Mercy For Animals investigator documented the operations of the largest dairy factory farm in the state of New York, USA which imprisons over 7,000 cows. Some of his findings included workers violently beating cows and calves and the use of electric shock devices. The innocent bovines rarely, if ever, saw the sun or breathed fresh air. We now continue with further excerpts from “Dairy’s Dark Side” that shows the inside of this utterly inhumane facility.

Dairy’s Dark Side

Cows are extremely gentle and affectionate animals, forming strong bonds, particularly between mother and child. Like all mammals, cows produce milk for their young, yet calves born in the dairy industry are dragged away from their mothers within days of birth. Here workers separate new born calves from their mothers, dragging the babies into isolated pens.

This is the last time these young calves will see their mothers. Many mother cows bellow in distress after their calves are taken. Workers in the dairy industry acknowledge the psychological trauma such separation causes.

Do they (cows) ever get mad when you take their kids? (Yes.)

Some cows yes, (Yes) become crazy

What? They?

Some cows become crazy when I take their babies.

This dying calf bellows out in distress as he slowly dies. Male calves unwanted by the dairy industry because they do not produce milk are often confined and then killed for veal. Frightened and panicked animals are often loaded onto transport trucks by workers who hit, kick, and electrically shock them.

On the left a worker can be seen abusively shocking the cows with electric prods. These panicked cows slip on the concrete floors as they jump off the transport trucks. Such dangerous unloading can injure the animals. Abusive handling of animals is common on factory farms.

So while he was down and cold, I walked around behind him and I started kicking him in the balls.

That’s the fifth time. You’re going to get the fist the next time.

That’s probably why I got arthritis big time in this hand.

From punching cows?

Probably.

Approximately nine million cows are used for milk production annually in the United States, the vast majority of living conditions similar to this. Day in and day out cows at this factory farm are forced to stand on concrete flooring, covered with a mixture of feces and urine.

Unable to access open pasture, nearly all of the cow’s natural behaviors are denied or frustrated on industrial factory farms. Filthy living conditions are an industry norm. Manure coats the floor surrounding the milking area. The majority of today’s dairy cows endure milking several times a day in an area like this.

Rows of small stalls confine cows. A worker moves down the line attaching the milking devices to the cows’ udders. Suffering from leg injuries, caked in manure, these cows are forced to stand on hard concrete during the milking process.

The average cow at this factory farm produces over 80 pounds of milk a day, an unnaturally high quantity induced by genetic manipulation and hormone injections. Cows were routinely injected with posilac, a growth hormone used to increase milk production. Studies suggest that the use of such growth hormones increases lameness in cows and cancer risks in humans.

The bodies of dead cows and calves were a common sight at this factory farm. For these cows conditions on the factory farms were simply too much. At around five years of age, a mere fraction of their natural life span, the worn out cows are shipped to the slaughterhouse. The lifeless bodies of these dairy cows illustrate the cruel and exploitive nature of modern dairy production.

Cows are curious, intelligent, and playful animals who are fully capable of experiencing joy, fear and pain in the same way as dogs and cats. Consumers hold enormous power in ending this abuse. If you are at all disturbed by what you have seen, please choose kindness over cruelty at your next meal by adopting a vegan diet. For more information, please visit ChooseVeg.com.

Our deep gratitude, Mercy For Animals investigators, Nathan Runkle, and all other staff and volunteers for your selfless, brave and determined work to reveal the horrors of the egg, dairy, and meat industries. Next Tuesday on Stop Animal Cruelty will be part two of our program which will focus on other Mercy For Animals investigations.

May humanity be awakened and blessed with unconditional love and compassion for all beings so that the types of facilities we have seen today soon close permanently. Please adopt the wholesome and loving organic vegan diet today and be a true champion of life!

For more details on investigations by Mercy For Animals, please visit www.MercyForAnimals.org/Investigations.aspx
Information on the vegan diet is available at ChooseVeg.com

Thoughtful viewers, thank you for joining us for today’s program. Enlightening Entertainment is next after Noteworthy News. May all animals be forever blessed by Heaven.

Chantal Cooke co-founded "Passion for the Planet" a UK-based radio station that uses engaging programming to encourage listeners to live sustainable lives and to be the leaders of a greener tomorrow.

The absolute best thing you can do is, to quote (Mahatma) Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see.” Take those actions, inspire somebody else. If somebody else sees you doing some composting or some recycling, they’ll go, “What are you doing? Why are you doing that?” Well, that’s an opportunity to talk.

Hear more from the vibrant Ms. Cooke on part two of a two-part series, “Chantal Cooke's Passion for the Planet,” Sunday, July 18, on Good People, Good Works.