Hidden Camera Shows Abuse at Texas Cattle Farm

A tough-to-watch hidden camera video at a Texas dairy farm shows workers bludgeoning calves with pick axes and sledgehammers, reports KDAF-TV. The Castro County Sheriff's Department has opened an animal cruelty investigation after watching the video made at the E6 Cattle Company, notes the Dallas Morning News. The local district attorney also has the video, though no charges have yet been filed. (To see part of the video, click through to the KDAF-TV link.)

"There is no defense to prosecution in claiming that this is some kind of industry standard because no one would say that a pick axe is the best way to euthanize downed livestock," said the president of the SPCA of Texas. The animals rights group that made the video, shot over more than two weeks by an investigator posing as a carpenter, goes further. It's "sadistic" and "constitutes torture," says a director of Mercy For Animals. (More animal cruelty stories.)