Court hears guilty pleas in cattle-abuse case in B.C.’s Fraser Valley
CHILLIWACK, B.C. — A company that owns a dairy farm in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley and one of its directors have pleaded guilty in a violent cattle-abuse case that was the first of its kind in the province.
Chilliwack Cattle Sales Ltd. pleaded guilty on Friday to three counts of causing an animal to continue to be in distress, while Wesley Kooyman pleaded guilty to one count.
Crown lawyer James MacAulay told the judge that the company must be held accountable for failing to adequately train or supervise its employees, who were shown beating and tormenting cows in video recorded by an animal-welfare group.
“It appears that the company unwittingly had permitted a culture of abuse to develop and thrive,” MacAulay told the judge, but he added that the company had taken steps to fix the problem.