The McArthur Dairy workers arrested on charges of animal cruelty all live in Okeechobee and were seen on the video committing abuse, the sheriff said. Mario Hernandez, 31, an assistant supervisor, was arrested on a third-degree felony charge of animal cruelty. Authorities said he struck a cow in the face with a sharpened PVC pipe. Fernando Lopez, 45, a caretaker, and Naul Dorantes-Garcia, 36, both face first-degree misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals. They are accused of hitting cows in the udders with a blunt PVC pipe.



Stephen said he met with Animal Recovery Mission investigators on Dec. 5 after they agreed to give the department time to investigate before releasing the McArthur video. In addition to the McArthur, Larson and Burnham dairies, the subject of ARM surveillance videos, a fourth dairy, Davie Dairy, is under investigation, Stephen said.



The Sheriff’s Office has hundreds of hours of video to view in the ongoing investigation into alleged abuse at the four dairies, he said. “The way these videos were recorded are very problematic and make it an issue for us to investigate,” he said.

Another undercover video of animal rights violations at an Okeechobee County dairy farm has surfaced.The shocking footage, produced by Miami Beach-based Animal Recovery Mission , or ARM, shows employees of McArthur Dairy using a blowtorch and a sharpened steel rod, among other abuses, on the animals.McArthur Dairy is one of Florida's longest-running and largest milk producers. The arrests mark the third dairy farm in Okeechobee County to face accusations of abusing cows and calves since November.Following the release of a previous video, three McArthur Dairy employees were arrested on Wednesday for animal rights violations.From theMcArthur brand milk is sold at local grocery stores such as Walmart and Target. Publix recently canceled their dairy orders from the company.For more information on ARM, click here