By STAN MADDUX

Indiana Correspondent

FAIR OAKS, Ind. — Damage control is in high gear at what’s portrayed as the Disneyland of dairy farms, after video showing calves being abused surfaced two weeks ago.

A number of stores pulled the farm’s milk off of their shelves following the release of the videos. The Indiana dairy and major tourist destination offers the brand fairlife, a higher-protein, higher-calcium milk. The annual Dog-A-Paloozza scheduled for June 8 was postponed until further notice because of the allegations. This was an event benefiting local animal shelters and featuring dog dock diving and other dog demonstrations.

Animal rights activists demonstrated June 5 in downtown Indianapolis and plan to do so again June 17 at the fairlife headquarters in Chicago. The Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) video shows calves at Fair Oaks Farms north of Rensselaer getting body slammed and hit with objects like steel rods and branding irons.

Also in the video are workers kicking calves and slinging them into huts and trucks and the carcasses of dead calves being piled up.

Fair Oaks Farms founder Mike McCloskey, a cattle veterinarian prior to breaking into the dairy industry, vowed to take corrective measures in a video released to social media on June 5.

“I am disappointed for not being aware of this kind of awful treatment occurring and I take full responsibility for what has happened. I also take full responsibility to correct and ensure that every employee understands, embraces and practices the core values on which our organization stands,” he said.

McCloskey, who previously denied calves were being sold as veal, said he didn’t know it was occurring due to a breakdown in management.

“It was not our practice in the past but due to a lack of communication between the general manager in charge of our livestock sales and myself, I was unaware that we were selling our calves to the veal industry.”

“Our bull calves will no longer go to veal,” he said.

The calves were being taken to Midwest Veal LLC about 80 miles to the east at North Manchester.

In a statement released by Midwest Veal, officials said there were no evidence of abuse in the portion of the video taken at the operation’s calf nursery room.

Less than four-percent of the veal purchased by Midwest Veal comes from Fair Oaks Farms, according to the company.

“We do not condone animal abuse of any kind. That is why we, too, find the video released by the animal rights organization disturbing and unacceptable,” company officials stated.

To prevent future animal abuse, McCloskey said video cameras will be installed at the dairy where animals and employees interact.

The cameras will also be placed so they can be monitored, he said.

McCloskey also said he will contract with an animal welfare organization to conduct frequent, unannounced audits on the farm.

He said video cameras were never put up because of the training employees undergo about the program and values at the farm and he wanted to build trust.

“This was a horrible judgment on my part. The way I have to look at this is that as hard as we try, you can always end up with bad people within your organization and this is what happened to us,” he said.

Richard Couto, founder of the Miami, Florida based ARM, called McCloskey’s video response “nothing more than a PR move.”

The video was taken by a Farm Oaks Farms employee sent there by ARM to get a job.

Couto said his investigator was never trained and McCloskey’s response didn’t come close to solving all of the problems.

“My investigator was never, ever trained there. Nor were any of the employees that were hired after we were there. They were given a milking bottle, thrown in a calf hutch and told to milk as fast as they could. No training,” Couto said.

McCloskey said three of the employees shown in the video abusing calves were fired three months ago after coworkers reported them for animal cruelty.

He said the terminations happened before he learned there was an undercover investigation taking place.

The fourth worker caught on video abusing calves was let go June 4.

According to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, an investigation is being conducted that could lead to charges against the alleged abusers and anyone who may have witnessed the alleged crimes and failed to report it.

McCloskey said he will work closely with law enforcement during the investigation.

The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) said no representative of ARM ever contacted it to report their concerns and findings or share the video.

BOAH also stated no reports of animal abuse or neglect have ever been filed with the agency since Fair Oaks Farms started in the mid-1990s.

A 99-room Fairfield Inn by Marriott went up this year at Fair Oaks Farms which draws more than 600,000 people annually to learn about modern farming in what is touted to be a fun-filled atmosphere featuring things like dairy, crop and pig adventures.

There’s also the 265-seat Farmhouse Restaurant serving dishes made with ingredients from Fair Oaks and other farms in the area.

Fair Oaks Farms is the creator of fairlife, a national brand distributed by Coca-Cola. Jewel-Osco, Strack & Van Til, and Family Express are among the store chains pulling fairlife from shelves in response to the video.