Animal rights activist who uncovered 'severe abuse' of baby calves being violently treated at Colorado cattle farm is cited for animal cruelty



Taylor Radig was charged Friday for waiting two months after she had stopped working at Quanah Cattle Co to report the abuse

The video she filmed earlier this year for animals rights organisation, Compassion Over Killing, shows three farmworkers cruelly abusing the newborn calves



Some of the animals still have their umbilical cords attached and are too feeble to walk steadily



Radig filmed them being violently dragged by their legs, kicked and pulled by their ears

Activist: Taylor Radig was charged Friday for waiting two months after she had stopped working at Quanah Cattle Co. to report the severe animal abuse she filmed while undercover at the farm

An animal rights activist who worked undercover at a Colorado cattle company and filmed the ‘severe abuse’ of newborn calves has been cited for animal cruelty.



Taylor Radig was charged Friday with the misdemeanour for waiting for two months after she had stopped working at Quanah Cattle Co. to report the abuse.



The video she filmed earlier this year for the animals rights organisation, Compassion Over Killing, shows three farmworkers cruelly abusing the calves – some of which still have their umbilical cords attached - while they move them on and off trucks.

Quanah Cattle Co. (QCC) is an animal agribusiness company in Kersey, Colorado, that purchases newborn calves from dairy factories and temporarily confines them in small cubicles before shipping them out to be raised for their meat, according to Compassion Over Killing.



Many of these calves are just days old and are too feeble or frightened to walk steadily.



The fragile animals are seen being violently dragged by their legs, kicked, pulled by their ears, lifted by their tails, thrown to the ground, slammed onto the trucks and even flipped over - and covered in flies.

Abuse: Radig went undercover at a cattle farm in Colorado and filmed the abuse of calves, some of which were picked up by their tails

Thrown: The animals were seen being violently thrown into the back of trucks

Terrible: The men were seen pulling the calves by their ears while many of the animals tried to resist the bad treatment

Ill treatment: The feeble animals were pushed to the ground and kicked off the trucks. They are seen falling down and struggling to get up

Picked up: This animal was grabbed by its tail and dangled as it was hauled towards the holding cell

Dead: Some of the young animals died under the violent treatment and their bodies are seen strewn around the farm

Just business: Quanah Cattle Co purchases newborn calves from dairy factories and temporarily confines them in small cubicles before shipping them out to be raised for their meat

‘Radig’s failure to report the alleged abuse of the animals in a timely manner adheres to the definition of acting with negligence and substantiates the charges Animal Cruelty,’ said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, according to The Blaze.



The executive director of the animal rights organisation, Erica Meier, said the charges were ‘unsupported by the law’ and a ‘shoot-the-messenger strategy aimed at detracting attention away from the crimes of those who actually abused animals’.

‘The Weld County Sheriff’s Office has chosen to retaliate against the individual who witnessed, documented and reported the callous mistreatment of newborn calves,’ Meier told The Coloradoan.

‘Merely witnessing others abusing animals is not a crime, and our investigator (Radig) was working cooperatively with local authorities on this case prior to this baseless accusation.’