{"id":120054,"date":"2018-10-15T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T11:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=120054"},"modified":"2018-10-11T10:46:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T09:46:11","slug":"calves-in-confinement-gruesome-footage-of-dairy-calves-exposes-a-gaping-loophole-in-californias-landmark-animal-welfare-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/10\/calves-in-confinement-gruesome-footage-of-dairy-calves-exposes-a-gaping-loophole-in-californias-landmark-animal-welfare-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Calves in Confinement: Gruesome Footage of Dairy Calves Exposes a Gaping Loophole in California\u2019s Landmark Animal Welfare Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 720px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-120054-1\" width=\"720\" height=\"334\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal.mp4\" >https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><em>This article includes graphic images that some readers may find disturbing.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>8 Oct 2018 &#8211; <\/em>On a chilly night\u00a0in December 2016, Julianne Perry led a group of volunteers over the shoulder of the highway and into the darkness of California\u2019s Central Valley, toward the sound of lowing cattle. Their headlamps lit the way across dirt fields, their nostrils and throats filling with the choking smell of ammonia and feces floating in the humid air. They walked toward the sound, as one volunteer described it later, of thousands of cattle screaming. After a mile, they came to their target: a complex of low, wooden buildings that seemed to go on forever in all directions.<\/p>\n<p>Before embarking on their nighttime mission, Perry and the other animal rights volunteers had looked at the area\u00a0on Google Maps and been staggered by\u00a0the scale of operations. Google\u2019s satellite imagery showed a vast complex with beef-feeding and calf-raising; a dairy sprawled next door. A count based on the satellite images revealed roughly 4,000 hutches, each with three individual stalls of about\u00a06 1\/2 feet by 2 feet, a little larger than a bathtub. That would be space for over 10,000 animals in the vast spread of hutches an eighth of a mile across, beside a lake of feces.<\/p>\n<p>That night, on a portion of the property, they found thousands of black-and-white Holsteins and Jersey calves \u2013 breeds commonly used for dairy production \u2013 crammed into stalls so small that, as shown by the video they shot, a calf had to turn itself nearly double as it strained to turn around in its stall. Other videos show calves covered in their own filth; the hutches have slats in the floor to let manure fall through into a gutter that was regularly hosed out, but invariably some gets trapped on the floor. \u201cEvery time they had to lie down, they had to lie in their own waste,\u201d Perry recalled. \u201cThey pee, poop, eat, sleep in one small space.\u201d Aside from clinging to the fur of the cattle, the feces caked on the floor, where it was kicked into aerosol by the nervous shuffling of thousands of calves. \u201cYou can\u2019t compare the smell to anything,\u201d Perry said. \u201cIt fills your senses in a way that you can\u2019t think of anything but how sick you feel, your brain telling you that you can\u2019t survive here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perry and her fellow volunteers were investigators with\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/directactioneverywhere.com\/\" >Direct Action Everywhere<\/a>, or DxE, a decentralized group of activists that seeks to publicize the day-to-day doings of industrial agriculture. They had come to this property \u2014 100 miles east of San Francisco \u2014 as part of a mission to figure out whether major legal reforms that California had passed in 2008 had made any difference in the lives of calves raised in the state. They found a\u00a0gaping hole.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Costco&#8217;s Hidden Graveyard &#8211; <\/strong><strong><em>Video: Direct Action Everywhere<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aa1wGZ400MY<\/p>\n<p>I<u>n 2008, Californians<\/u>\u00a0passed one of the country\u2019s farthest-reaching initiatives to improve farm animal welfare: the Standards for Confining Farm Animals, pushed by a coalition of groups including the Humane Society of the United States. Proposition 2, as it was known, was backed by a number of other animal rights organizations and sought to end what advocates see as one of the worst practices of industrial agriculture: the extreme confinement of some farm animals for their entire lives. Certain classes of animals are packed into excruciatingly tight quarters from birth to slaughter, unable to perform \u201cnatural behaviors\u201d like stretching their limbs, kicking their legs, or even turning around in their enclosures.<\/p>\n<p>The statute, billed at the time as one of the most sweeping pieces of animal welfare legislation in American history, targeted what advocates saw as the worst categories: egg-laying hens, crammed together in battery cages; mother sows, confined with their piglets in tiny stalls; and veal calves, traditionally taken at birth (so their mothers can begin immediately producing milk) and raised in tiny crates before being killed. \u201cWe knew no law could tackle every issue, and that there\u2019s unbearable pain in other parts of the industry,\u201d said Josh Balk, vice president for farm animal protection at the Humane Society. \u201cBut these were the most emblematic confined animals.\u201d The measure passed with 63 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<p>But Perry, an intelligence analyst at Intel who moonlighted with DxE, was skeptical. In investigations from California to the Carolinas, DxE has probed the space between industry promise and industry practice, with often grotesque results. By sneaking onto factory farms with cameras, DxE investigators had revealed mass cannibalism in cage-free chicken houses that\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/10\/21\/business\/video-reveals-how-cage-free-hens-live-animal-advocates-say.html\" >supplied Costco<\/a>. They\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/morning-mix\/wp\/2015\/11\/24\/whole-foods-thanksgiving-turkeys-endure-horrific-conditions-at-calif-farm-animal-rights-activists-say\/\" >found<\/a>\u00a0turkeys packed together with open sores, in six inches of feces, in a California farm that Whole Foods had marked as the best of the best. And when\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/science-and-health\/2018\/5\/8\/17318936\/smithfield-foods-pork-pig-humane-animal-abuse-animal-welfare\" >Smithfield<\/a>, the Chinese-owned, Virginia-based corporation that is one of the world\u2019s largest pig farmers, announced that they had phased out farrowing crates for sows,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2017\/10\/05\/factory-farms-fbi-missing-piglets-animal-rights-glenn-greenwald\/\" >a DxE investigation alleged<\/a>\u00a0that crates continue to be used. Wayne Hsiung, DxE founder,\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/06\/07\/animal-rights-activists-face-multiple-felony-charges-brought-by-prosecutors-with-ties-to-smithfield-foods\/\" >faces 60 years in prison<\/a>\u00a0for the Smithfield investigation.<\/p>\n<p>What DxE found in Oakdale points to a problem with Prop 2 \u2013 a relevant fact for California voters, who will go to the polls next month <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7news.com\/politics\/2018-voter-guide-a-look-at-californias-proposition-12\/4330896\/\" >to vote on Prop 12<\/a>, a referendum intended to close some of the loopholes in Prop 2.<\/p>\n<p>Although the on-the-ground investigation was conducted nearly two years ago, and DxE has not returned to the spot since, their findings point to a way in which the law still allows dairy calves \u2014 the vast majority of calves in California \u2014 to be held in tight confinement. That remains true whether or not Prop 12 passes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_120056\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal2.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-120056\" class=\"wp-image-120056\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal2-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal2-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-120056\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Newborn calves at the farm are fed from bottles (in silver-colored brackets) that are removed at night. Aside from the threat of contagion, one reason dairy calves are kept separately is that they can injure themselves or their neighbors with desperate suckling. Still: Direct Action Everywhere<\/p><\/div>\n<p>P<u>erry was driving<\/u>\u00a0through the Central Valley, checking out farms for an investigation into the dairy industry, when she made the inadvertent discovery. The California dairy industry \u2014 by far the nation\u2019s largest, with 1.7 million dairy cows, each of which produces nearly a\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/usda.mannlib.cornell.edu\/usda\/current\/MilkProd\/MilkProd-07-20-2018.pdf\" >ton of milk<\/a>\u00a0a year \u2014 was, thanks to its political power, not included in the confinement ban of Proposition 2, unlike the state\u2019s\u00a0tiny veal industry.<\/p>\n<p>This was, to Perry, a triumph of semantics over common sense: \u201cIf the reason for [Prop 2] was to protect the welfare of baby boy cows, then why does it matter if it was for one product or another?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though the Holstein and Jersey calves that make up most California cattle are not primarily bred for beef or veal production \u2014 unlike, say, Angus cattle \u2014 they are still fed into a vast state beef industry. Since cows, like all mammals, must bear offspring in order to start lactating, dairy operations must repeatedly impregnate their cows, producing hundreds of thousands of calves\u00a0a year. Female dairy calves become \u201creplacements\u201d for the dairy herd, but male calves have been a problem for dairy operations for as long as they have existed \u2014 a problem solved by turning them into veal, which entails slaughtering the low-value male dairy calves before much effort has to be spent feeding them. Veal calves are traditionally kept tightly confined to keep the meat tender, and it was this confinement that animal welfare groups celebrated ending in 2008. But veal has a\u00a0minuscule\u00a0market share in California, and has dropped to insignificance nationwide. Since 2008, national veal production has fallen by half, to just 0.43 percent of beef production. Meanwhile, despite a rise in genetically engineered brands of bespoke semen that lets dairies impregnate their cattle with only female calves, the dairy industry still produces over\u00a01 million calves a year.<\/p>\n<p>So what was happening to those calves? \u201cWhen the average person hears the word \u2018veal,\u2019 they think of baby calves confined in crates so small they can barely move,\u201d Perry told The Intercept. \u201cAnd when they hear that veal [confinement] has been banned due to concern for animal welfare, they\u2019ll assume calves are no longer being forced to live in those conditions.\u201d So she was therefore surprised to come upon the operation outside Oakdale in December 2016, and find what looked like thousands upon thousands of veal hutches stretching into the distance. Those kinds of hutches had been all but outlawed for veal calves by Prop 2, and voluntarily rejected by the main veal industry groups soon after. And yet here they were.<\/p>\n<p>In April of this year,\u00a0DxE\u00a0flew drones over the property. The footage reveals the same tiny hutches in rows a dozen deep, spread out beside the sewage lagoon.<\/p>\n<p>Determining who\u00a0was responsible for\u00a0the calves they saw, and what they were raised for, turned out to be complicated \u2014 not least because the California calf supply chain, winding as it does across thousands of family operations and rural land holdings, is hard to untangle.<\/p>\n<p>The address that DxE visited in Oakdale, California, is listed on the website for RayMar Ranches. According to the website, the company was started by Ray Alger to breed Angus cattle for other ranches; Alger\u2019s son, Jeff Alger, and his son-in-law run a calf-raising operation called A&amp;A Cattle Company. The two businesses share a phone number in public listings. Satellite imagery of the address, retrieved from Google Maps, shows a sprawling farm operation surrounding the family mansion.<\/p>\n<p>Despite repeated tries, The Intercept was unable to get comment from RayMar about the calves discovered by DxE\u00a0and the conditions in which they were raised. The first time, a woman picked up and said, \u201cThe Intercept? Never heard of it,\u201d and hung up; the second, a man told me, \u201cI don\u2019t have any dairy cows. I\u2019m an old man. I\u2019m retired.\u201d (The calves in the hutches on the property were, uniformly, Holsteins and Jersey cattle \u2013 that is, breeds raised almost exclusively for dairy production.) The Intercept made repeated efforts, by phone and email, to get in touch with Jeff Alger, but he did not respond.<\/p>\n<p>A representative for the dairy next door, Hilltop Holsteins, said in an email that the calves in DxE\u2019s video did not belong to Hilltop; he maintained that there were no calves kept at Hilltop and declined to say where they were sent to, out of the fear of \u201csome folks steal[ing] our future generation.\u201d The representative, Kevin Abernathy, who is a lobbyist for the dairy industry, also denied that Hilltop had any relationship with the Algers\u2019 businesses.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_120057\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal3.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-120057\" class=\"wp-image-120057\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal3-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal3.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal3-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-120057\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">About one calf in 20, on average, dies before leaving feedlots, generally of diarrhea or pneumonia. Beside the calf hutches at Hilltop Holsteins, investigators with DxE found a pile of calf corpses that had been there for some time. Still: Direct Action Everywhere<\/p><\/div>\n<p>T<u>he conditions DxE<\/u>\u00a0filmed showed the costs of confinement.<\/p>\n<p>One cost, the calf-raising industry has long known, is a higher rate of sickness and death \u2014\u00a01 in\u00a05 calves suffers from diarrhea severe enough to require antibiotics, according to a dairy industry\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.journalofdairyscience.org\/article\/S0022-0302(16)30108-4\/fulltext\" >study<\/a>, and when calves die \u2014 as about 7 percent do, on average \u2014 diarrhea is the cause of death half the time. In a grim note of that death rate, Perry and the other DxE investigators found a pile of calf corpses, many of them covered in maggots.<\/p>\n<p>Perry was shocked. She crawled into one of the stalls and sat as a calf licked the top of her biohazard suit. It reminded her of a dog, only 300 pounds and shoved into a space approximately the size of a bathtub, exposed to the elements, with no blankets or bedding, utterly without company or touch. \u201cI\u2019m just 5-foot-2, and I couldn\u2019t raise my arms without hitting that enclosure,\u201d she said. If the owner of the calves is not selling veal, said Dena Jones, who runs the farm animal\u00a0program at Animal Welfare Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy and policy group, there was no obvious need to keep them in such tight confinement. The industry has long claimed that \u201cindividual housing\u201d is necessary as a preventative measure for the endemic disease in feedlots. But <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/p7a0of8dtn4r5ap\/western%20dairy%20digest%20study.pdf?dl=0\" >more recent research<\/a> has shown that calves in properly managed \u201cgroup housing,\u201d where a few calves live together in one stall, are no more likely to contract disease, and display a range of benefits: They play more and are better socialized, and \u2014 more relevant to an industry dedicated to managing them \u2014 are less afraid of new foods and new experiences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere would be very little difference between the welfare of the animals DxE observed and the welfare of veal calves in traditional crates or stalls,\u201d Jones wrote to The Intercept. \u201cThe welfare of these animals is poor \u2014 very restricted movement, no bedding, no enrichment of any kind, no social interaction with other calves, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A standard practice during DxE investigations, as both a propaganda and morale-boosting measure, is to rescue \u2014 or from the industry perspective, steal \u2014 an animal in distress. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to walk out of there not just feeling like the world is awful,\u201d said Hsiung, the DxE founder. The volunteers brought out a male Holstein calf, who, at 300 pounds, seemed to have spent months in his crate; he struggled to walk, and the activists speculated that he had perhaps never walked before.<\/p>\n<p>DxE investigators say they brought the calf, who they named Nick, to a veterinarian office, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia \u2014 the other major killer of calves \u2014 and given little chance of survival.\u00a0DxE says the\u00a0vets also found that he had a severely weakened immune system, a result of never having received colostrum, which calves usually get from their first feeding from their mothers. \u201cThat meant he had been taken away the day he was born,\u201d Hsiung said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_120058\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal4.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-120058\" class=\"wp-image-120058\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal4-1024x607.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal4.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal4-300x178.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/calves-intercept-california-animal4-768x455.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-120058\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers for DxE rescue a calf. Still: Direct Action Everywhere<\/p><\/div>\n<p>W<u>as the confinement<\/u>\u00a0captured on video\u00a0a violation of Proposition 2? The law, which defined \u201ccruelty\u201d as being unable to perform \u201cnatural behaviors,\u201d only banned extreme confinement for veal \u2014 defined, somewhat circularly, as \u201cthe food product described as veal.\u201d That means that under current law, if a dairy farm raises a calf in tight confinement, butchers it, and sells the meat as veal \u2014 that\u2019s illegal. But raise the same calf in the same conditions, butcher it the same way, and sell it as beef: That\u2019s legal. And if\u00a0the farm\u00a0similarly confines that calf\u2019s sister, who will join the dairy herd \u2014 that\u2019s legal too.<\/p>\n<p>Hsiung believes the upshot was clear: Putting in thousands of all-new enclosures would be expensive \u2014 and, as long as the cattle weren\u2019t sold as veal, legally unnecessary. But Jones, the analyst from Animal Welfare Institute, suggested the distinction was without difference. \u201cWhile this situation may not be a violation of the law passed as Prop 2 in 2008, it certainly violates the spirit of that law. If Californians were made aware of this form of animal treatment, I believe most would strongly disapprove.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>November\u2019s referendum, Proposition 12, is meant to address some of the areas that Proposition 2 left ambiguous: for instance, which state agency regulated confinement standards, leading to what Hsiung called \u201ca game of regulatory hot potato.\u201d Proposition 12 charges the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The previous referendum\u2019s behavior standard \u2014 animals have to have enough space be able to perform natural behaviors, which led to gridlock over what constituted natural behaviors, and how much space\u00a0was required \u2014 would be replaced with a concrete engineering standard, requiring veal calves to have 43 square feet by 2020. And borrowing a provision passed in Massachusetts in 2016, the farthest-reaching measure would ban any products from confined egg hens, sows, or veal calves to be sold in California after 2020 \u2014\u00a0no matter where in the country they had been produced.<\/p>\n<p>Many animal welfare and rights groups \u2014 including Animal Welfare Institute and Animal Legal Defense \u2014 are for the measure, however tepidly, because they see it as at least an improvement over the current practice. Hsiung, of DxE, agrees, but DxE as a whole is divided.\u00a0PETA\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/blog\/why-we-oppose-californias-farmed-animal-initiative-and-you-should-too\/\" >has pointed out<\/a>\u00a0that though the law outlaws cages for egg-laying chickens, it only gives them a square foot of space each \u2013\u00a0a\u00a0concern many other DxE volunteers share.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>They fear that if Prop 12 passes, it will lock in a low standard of animal protection while persuading voters that the moral and technical problems with confinement have been solved.<\/p>\n<p>Note, too, that Proposition 12 only applies to veal calves. There is still no provision for other calves, which make up the vast majority of the calves in California and around the country. And even if there were more veal calves to be concerned about, DxE volunteers note, the standard for veal is still only about\u00a06 by 7 feet \u2014 enough room to turn around, but not much else.<\/p>\n<p>Today Nick, the calf that DxE rescued, lives on a sanctuary with another calf taken during an investigation of a Land O\u2019Lakes dairy facility. \u201cIt\u2019s very powerful to see these animals run for the first time,\u201d said Cassie King, a DxE volunteer, because for most of their lives, \u201cthey\u2019ve been in a crate, never had the chance to run.\u201d That deprivation, said Hsiung, is mirrored in other things they do. \u201cYou see them staring at the sky, stare at something colorful, and you realize they\u2019ve never seen it before. What is a flower, an apple, a pig, a human being? The first time you give an apple, they just stare at it. What is this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This, he said, is \u201cwhat we could give all these animals: Let them walk on grass, see the sky, explore their world, look up and see blue. They could sleep on bedding, not their own feces.\u201d But even at its best, Proposition 12 won\u2019t do this, for veal calves or any others. For all the talk of natural behaviors, 43 square feet is not nearly enough space to run.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Correction, October 9, 2018:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>An earlier version of this story stated that DxE supported Prop 12. Wayne Hsiung, the group\u2019s founder, supports the measure, but\u00a0the group\u2019s membership is divided.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>______________________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Related:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/06\/07\/animal-rights-activists-face-multiple-felony-charges-brought-by-prosecutors-with-ties-to-smithfield-foods\/\" > Animal Rights Activists Face Multiple Felony Charges, Brought by Prosecutors With Ties to Smithfield Foods<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/05\/17\/inside-the-barbaric-u-s-industry-of-dog-experimentation\/\" >Inside the Barbaric U.S. Industry of Dog Experimentation<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2017\/11\/01\/rescue-at-oakland-slaughterhouse-shows-new-potent-tactics-of-growing-animal-rights-movement\/\" >Rescue at Oakland Slaughterhouse Shows New, Potent Tactics of Growing Animal Rights Movement<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<li><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2017\/10\/05\/factory-farms-fbi-missing-piglets-animal-rights-glenn-greenwald\/\" >The FBI\u2019s Hunt for Two Missing Piglets Reveals the Federal Cover-Up of Barbaric Factory Farms<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saul-Elbein.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-120059 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Saul-Elbein-e1539250934151.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/em><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/staff\/saul-elbein\/\" >Saul Elbein<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"mailto:saul.elbein@gmail.com\">saul.elbein@\u200bgmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/10\/08\/california-prop-12-animal-welfare-dairy-calves\/\" >Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 Oct 2018 &#8211; An investigation by activist group DxE showed thousands of dairy calves held in tight hutches, despite efforts to outlaw such confined conditions. This article includes graphic images that some readers may find disturbing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":120057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-rights-vegetarianism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}