Animal rights group sues Crescent City-based agricultural company accused of animal cruelty – Times-Standard

Editor's Note: This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing to some readers.

Alexandre Family Farms is being sued by an animal rights group, seeking an injunction against the company for allegedly salting the eyeballs of sick cows, dragging them across concrete with heavy machinery, cutting off the teats of dairy cows without anesthesia and committing other animal cruelty.

In April, a report written by another animal rights organization — later covered in a scathing article in The Atlantic — used whistleblower complaints alleging the company routinely starved, physically tortured and neglected its cows before removing the sick ones and the sickest animals were sold at auctions. Alexandre Family Farms, which sells dairy products nationwide and markets itself as a leader in humane agriculture, denies the allegations and has not commented on pending litigation.

The complaint filed by Legal Impact for Chickens serves as a reiteration of whistleblower accounts in the report published by Farm Forward: The inhumane conditions co-created by farm owners Blake, Stephanie and Joseph Alexandre resulted in the death and suffering of hundreds of their cows.

In one case described in the complaint, a cow with eye cancer that should have been euthanized was instead kept alive with torturous, ineffective home remedies so that the farm could sell her.

“Even after discovering that the cows have cancer, Alexandre commits atrocities by keeping the cows alive by putting eye patches on them and in some cases even gluing their eyes shut. “Alexandre commits this cruelty for no apparent reason other than to deceive potential buyers and maximize Alexandre’s own profits,” the complaint states. “These sick cows cannot be used for meat. Rather, once the buyer removes the band-aid and discovers the cancer, he or she is left with no better choice than to euthanize the suffering animal. Applying an eye patch only serves to increase the defendant’s profits while prolonging and increasing the cow’s suffering.”

The farm told Atlantic reporter Annie Lowrey that the denim patches contained a saline solution containing cod liver oil intended to treat conjunctivitis. A large animal veterinarian interviewed by Lowery described this tactic for treating eye disease in cows as “nonsense.”

Legal Impact for Chickens still must forward the lawsuit to Alexandre Family Farms within 60 days, then the farm must file an answer.

Another part of the complaint described a case in which an employee treated a cow with mastitis by cutting off a piece of her teat with a dirty pocket knife. The photo below shows a necrotic looking cow teat over a pool of blood.

If a judge grants the injunction, the farm would have to pay its opponents' legal fees and face legal consequences if they don't comply with the ruling.

“We’re just asking them to follow the law. We don't do this for money. We just want them to treat the animals better,” said Alena Anello, president of Legal Impact for Chickens.

The complaint also accused the farm of creating conditions so inhospitable that dozens of animals either died or had to be euthanized. One case was cited where the farm had allegedly stopped feeding the cows to encourage them to forage on the company's premises. When a feed truck finally showed up, about 800 cows began a stampede, killing 40 of them in the frantic hunt for food, according to the complaint.

Cows suffered so much from starvation – the plaintiffs claimed the farm intentionally bought more cows than their land could support – that at one point the farm had to euthanize about 80 of its heifers because they were too thin to give birth, the lawsuit says Statement of Claim.

While the farm has not commented on the pending litigation, previous media statements have denied the allegations and accused Farm Forward and Lowrey of acting in bad faith.

“We take responsibility for all animal treatment on our farm. Having now had the opportunity to read the report, we have come to the conclusion that many of the claims are either completely false or made up half-truths. If we identify areas for improvement, we will take appropriate steps to address them,” the statement said.

“Cows are gentle, sensitive animals. They develop friendships with each other. You feel the same pain as your dog or cat at home and deserve to be treated with kindness. That’s why animal cruelty is illegal in California,” Anello said.

The full complaint can be viewed at legalimpactforchickens.org/alexandre-complaint and the report can be found at https://bit.ly/3XOGeKS.

Jackson Guilfoil can be reached at 707-441-0506