B.C. SPCA says first time company has been charged with animal cruelty on farm
CHILLIWACK, B.C. — Twenty counts of animal cruelty have been laid against a dairy farm and seven of its employees in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley, about 18 months after a disturbing video surfaced showing farm animals being viciously beaten.
Sixteen of the counts are related to cruelty against cows and four concern treatment of a pigeon, the SPCA said.
Chilliwack Cattle Sales Ltd. and five of its corporate directors have also been charged with causing or permitting animals to be in distress — the first time a B.C. company has been held accountable for acts of cruelty on a farm, the SPCA says in a news release.
Spokeswoman Marcie Moriarty said the agency received an undercover video in June 2014 showing dairy cows being beaten with chains, canes and rakes, and being kicked and punched after they were trapped and could not escape the abuse.