CRATED CRUELTY

From December to February 2014, a Mercy For Animals Canada investigator worked at a Délimax veal factory farm in Pont-Rouge, Quebec. Our hidden camera captured horrific animal cruelty and neglect, including:

• Calves crammed into feces-covered wooden boxes barely larger than their own bodies
• Baby animals chained by the neck, unable to even turn around or lie down comfortably for their entire lives
• Animals driven mad from boredom and stress, denied even their most basic natural behaviours
• Workers violently kicking, punching, and tormenting baby animals
• Animals painfully stuck in the wooden slats of their crates
• Sick and injured animals left to suffer and slowly die in their own filth without proper veterinary care

EXPERT OPINIONS

After reviewing the undercover footage, Dr. John Webster, Professor of Animal Husbandry at the University of Bristol, and Europe's leading expert on dairy cattle welfare, stated: "In all my experience, this is the worst, cruelest system that I have ever seen, in every sense, housing, health and stockmanship. [T]he system as seen on the video is now illegal in Europe, both in regard to individual housing, and denial of access to solid feed containing sufficient digestible fibre."

Dr. Sara Shields agreed, concluding: "Veal crates are the epitome of a poor animal housing system, and it is almost shocking to see them still being used... Studies have shown that calves tethered in stalls have higher physiological stress responses than those kept in groups or in pairs."

DITCH VEAL, DITCH DAIRY

Veal is a direct by-product of the dairy industry. Since they will never produce milk, male calves born into the dairy industry are ripped away from their mothers' sides shortly after birth and end up in veal factory farms like this one.

These calves spend their short, wretched lives languishing in their own waste inside a tiny wooden box. They never get to see the sun, breathe fresh air, feel the grass beneath their feet, walk, run, play, or do anything that makes life worth living. Their short lives are filled with misery, violence, and deprivation.

Although cruelty and violence are standard practice for Canada's veal industry, caring consumers can help end the needless suffering of calves and other farmed animals by choosing a compassionate vegan diet.