Shocking video footage secretly recorded by Mercy For Animals at a Delimax veal factory farm in Pont-Rouge, Quebec, has led to the conviction of a worker, Éric Dame, for animal abuse and mistreatment. Dame has been sentenced to pay a $4,000 fine and is prohibited from owning more than five animals for a period of 15 years for violating the Quebec provincial Animal Health Protection Act.





The graphic undercover video at Delimax—a major Canadian veal supplier—exposed Dame kicking, punching, and beating baby calves, baby calves chained by the neck and locked inside narrow crates so small the animals couldn’t walk, turn around, or lie down comfortably, and animals suffering from open wounds without proper veterinary care.





Following the investigation, Mercy For Animals immediately submitted a detailed legal complaint to the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the agency responsible for enforcing animal welfare laws, calling for animal cruelty charges to be filed against the company for its violations of both provincial and federal law. Mercy For Animals praises the Montreal SPCA for pursuing justice for these abused and tormented animals.





Watch the footage that led to the convictions here:









The release of this graphic footage resulted in recommendations by both the Ontario and Quebec veal associations to phase out inherently cruel veal crates. Additionally, it prompted major retailers Loblaws, Sobeys, and Metro to ban the sale of crated veal in their stores. Such a ban was already in effect at Costco.





Baby calves raised for veal are routinely ripped away from their mothers and locked alone on feces-covered floors in wooden crates or chained by the neck for their entire lives. In such intensive and unrelenting confinement, these social and gentle animals are unable to even turn around, lie down comfortably, walk, run, play, or do anything that makes life worth living.





Mercy For Animals is now calling on the National Farm Animal Care Council to update the Code of Practice for the care and handling of veal calves to prohibit the use of veal crates, and the Quebec agriculture minister to give the code of practice the force of law in Quebec’s provincial animal cruelty legislation.





