The B.C. Milk Marketing Board says it will destroy milk from a large B.C. dairy farm where animal abuse was captured on video.
The board says it’s destroying the milk due to lack of demand from processors who’ve asked not to receive milk from Chilliwack Cattle Sales until they’re satisfied that animal welfare issues have been addressed.
One of those processors is dairy food giant Saputo Inc., which announced Monday that it won’t use milk from the Chilliwack farm in light of the cattle abuse allegations.
“I think we need to send a message to the industry, and all stakeholders in the industry, that there needs to be reform,” Saputo CEO and board vice-chairman Lino Saputo Jr. told CTV News Channel Tuesday.
Several employees at Chilliwack Cattle Sales were secretly recorded in May punching, kicking and dragging cows at the farm. The video footage was released by the non-profit Mercy for Animals Canada, which sent someone to the farm undercover.
The farm said it fired eight employees after the video surfaced. No charges have been laid and none of the allegations has been proven in court.
Lino Saputo Jr. said he was “just as appalled” as consumers when he saw the video footage. He said the alleged abuse must serve “as a catalyst for us to consider reforming our industry.”
He said that milk marketing boards and the dairy industry currently don’t have enough power to monitor what happens at individual dairy farms.
“At the end of the day, we are processers of that milk. We receive that milk. That milk is managed by the milk marketing board and we were working with industry to try to find some solutions,” he said.
Saputo Jr. said destroying the milk from Chilliwack Cattle Sales was a difficult decision for the B.C. Milk Marketing Board.
“It’s not a pleasant thing to see that the milk is being destroyed,” but it should serve as a “wake-up call,” he said.
Saputo Jr. said his company will do its own “independent analysis” of the situation in Chilliwack and won’t accept milk from the farm until it’s satisfied that cattle are being treated well.
