More Information

In August 2012, an undercover investigator with Mercy For Animals documented heartbreaking animal abuse at Bettencourt Dairies, a major Burger King dairy supplier, including:

• Workers and management viciously beating, kicking, punching, and shocking cows and violently twisting their tails in order to deliberately inflict pain
• Workers and management dragging a downed cow by her neck using a chain attached to a tractor
• Extremely unsafe and unsanitary conditions, including feces-covered floors that cause cows to regularly slip, fall, and injure themselves
• Sick or injured cows suffering from open wounds, broken bones, and infected udders left to suffer without proper veterinary care

Expert Opinions

After reviewing the undercover footage, Dr. Temple Grandin, the world�s leading expert in farmed-animal welfare, stated: "The atrocious treatment of cows at this dairy is an indicator of a total lack of management supervision."

In a joint statement, Dr. Bernard Rollin, a distinguished professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University, and William Wailes, a dairy specialist and head of the Department of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University, declared: "Of the dozens of such videos that we have watched, this one was the most horrific and the most upsetting. ... Never have we seen such outright sadistic pleasure taken by workers in animal suffering."

Ditch Dairy

Far from leading the carefree lives portrayed in the dairy industry's "happy cow" commercials, cows exploited and killed for Burger King's cheese endure lives of near constant misery and deprivation.

Treated as mere milk-producing machines, these intelligent and social animals suffer almost unimaginable abuse from the time they are born and ripped from their mothers' sides until they are so physically worn out from repeated pregnancies and constant milk production that they are sold for slaughter.

Although horrific cruelty and violence are standard practice for Burger King's cheese suppliers, caring consumers can help end the needless suffering of cows and other farmed animals by choosing any number of healthy and humane plant-based alternatives to milk, cheese, and ice cream. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.

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