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In 2018, PETA exposed a worker at Heifer Solutions, LLC—a Porterfield, Wisconsin, farm that keeps and raises approximately 1,000 calves and heifers for various dairy farms—using a hot iron, without any anesthetics or pain relief, to burn the sensitive tissue off calves’ heads as they kicked and cried out in agony.
Following our exposé, the farm owners told law enforcement and the media they would start providing calves with pain relief when “dehorning” them, yet whistleblowers recently reported to PETA that calves as old as 6 to 7 months of age are still dehorned with a hot iron without any pain relief and clearly feel pain as they struggle against the halters used to restrain them.
Veterinary and dairy industry experts agree on the need for pain relief before and after this agonizing mutilation, and experts point out that because horn buds grow and attach to the skull at about 8 weeks of age, disbudding after that point can cause holes in the sinuses and subsequent bleeding and infection.
Further, the whistleblowers described cows who were deprived of veterinary care and confined in filthy, muddy conditions. They told PETA that one calf even died after being severely bitten in the face by a worker’s dog and receiving no veterinary care.
Please join us in calling on the farm owners to immediately ensure that no more calves endure this abusive mutilation without pain relief!