{"id":37522,"date":"2013-12-16T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T12:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=37522"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:20:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:20:12","slug":"undercover-video-exposes-alleged-cruelty-at-digiorno-dairy-supplier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/12\/undercover-video-exposes-alleged-cruelty-at-digiorno-dairy-supplier\/","title":{"rendered":"Undercover Video Exposes Alleged Cruelty at Digiorno Dairy Supplier"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Credit:<\/a>

(Credit: DiGiorno)<\/p><\/div>\n

DiGiorno, the nation\u2019s largest it\u2019s-not-delivery frozen pizza industry, has cut ties with\u00a0Wiese Brothers Farm after a video surfaced depicting alleged abuse of the farm\u2019s dairy cows.<\/p>\n

The video, shot by an undercover activist for\u00a0Mercy for Animals, shows workers at the\u00a0Wisconsin dairy farm kicking, beating and stabbing cows, as well as dragging them with ropes.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8UaN6wZ1cBA<\/p>\n

\u201cNestl\u00e9 is outraged and deeply saddened by the mistreatment of animals shown in this video,\u201d Deborah Cross, a spokesperson for Nestl\u00e9\u2019s pizza division, which manufactures DiGiorno pizza, told NBC News<\/a>.\u00a0Foremost Farms USA, DiGiorno\u2019s cheese supplier, also indicated that it will no longer accept dairy from the farm.<\/p>\n

The Wiese family, for its part, said it was\u00a0\u201cshocked and saddened\u201d by the video. They fired two employees and removed a third from \u201canimal handling\u201d responsibilities; local police are conducting further investigations.<\/p>\n

In contrast to the continued\u00a0rampant and unregulated animal abuse<\/a>\u00a0fueling the meat industry, and to the spate of new legislation aimed at quieting \u2014 and even punishing<\/a> \u2014 those who try to expose it, DiGiorno\u2019s swift response indicates that the industry is finally starting to pay attention. Businessweek<\/a>\u00a0places it as part of an encouraging trend:<\/p>\n

Paul Shapiro, a spokesman for the\u00a0Humane Society of the United States<\/a>, says a farm animal protection campaign that started back in 2005 has \u201conly started paying off in the last few years.\u201d In one sign of the shift, major food companies fromGeneral Mills\u00a0(GIS<\/a>)\u00a0to\u00a0Kraft Foods\u00a0(KRFT<\/a>)\u00a0recently pledged to use humanely raised meat,\u00a0according to the society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just last year, Nestl\u00e9 began developing\u00a0responsible sourcing guidelines<\/a>\u00a0based on its commitments to improved animal welfare. A document on its corporate website lists \u201cFive Freedoms\u201d to be applied to animal welfare that go beyond hunger and shelter to \u201cfreedom from fear and distress\u201d and \u201cfreedom to express normal patterns of behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

______________________<\/p>\n

Lindsay Abrams is an assistant editor at Salon, focusing on all things sustainable. Follow her on Twitter @readingirl, email labrams@salon.com. <\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 salon.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DiGiorno, the nation\u2019s largest it\u2019s-not-delivery frozen pizza industry, has cut ties with Wiese Brothers Farm after a video surfaced depicting alleged abuse of the farm\u2019s dairy cows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-rights-vegetarianism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37522","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=37522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}