Fairlife Board Member Embroiled in First Major Abuse Investigation on Organic Dairy Farm

The Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) recently released the first ever investigation into an organic dairy in the United States and the third installment of the largest dairy investigation of all time into Fairlife and Select Milk Producers Inc. Owned by Fairlife Board of Director Donal De Jong, who supplies dairy to the Fairlife label, Natural Prairie Organic Dairies house over 25,000 cows and consist of four locations near Dalhart, Texas. 

Natural Prairie Dairy is expanding to Newton County, Indiana and will supply dairy to Meijer Grocer, the Midwest and East Coast. Natural Prairie Dairy currently supplies raw dairy to Kroger through Aurora Dairy’s bottling plant in Denver, Colorado. Newton County is also home to Fair Oaks Farms where ARM discovered egregious and systematic abuse of calves and cows as well.

Some of the violations observed are as follows:

Maltreatment and Excessive Abuse Dairy of Cows Cows tormented, kicked, hit with shovels, and stabbed with screwdrivers by vet tech crews and animal caregivers. Cows inhumanly tied left in uncomfortable positions for hours and cows falling into cesspools almost drowning

Neglect of Sick and Injured Dairy Cows Flesh wounds, eye gashes and/or leg injuries not treated. Cows with infected eyes, infected udders, cuts and scrapes, limping and too weak to walk seen untreated and in declining health

Squalid, Overcrowded, Unsanitary Housing Cows live in squalid, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Cows spend the majority of their lives in illegally overcrowded feces-ridden barns and insufficient stalls force cows to lay in feces-ridden cement, causing foot rot and infections to untreated open wounds and scars

Force Feeding & Scientific Research Performed on Cows Portholes allow access to the rumen of a cow, to perform scientific research and analysis of the cow’s digestive system. It takes cows as much as 6 weeks to recover from this mutilation, and the hole is there for life, something that is very uncomfortable for the cows. Cows being force-fed with metal tubes by untrained employees

“The cows of Natural Prairie Dairy live a life of pure misery and torture. Beaten, stabbed and locked down in feces ridden barns, this is not what consumers imagine when purchasing organic milk and/or cheese. The world has just been schooled on the reality of organic dairy,” says Richard “Kudo” Couto, ARM Founder.

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