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When a whistleblower who worked at Grand Barr Dairy—an Oregon farm that uses approximately 250 goats for milk—contacted PETA to report that mothers and babies were confined in filth, emaciated, deprived of veterinary care for pneumonia and other infections, and dying in large numbers, we (and the whistleblower) reported this neglect to Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson. The sheriff and a deputy visited the farm in July but took no action to help the animals and just gave the owners a few “recommendations” meant to improve conditions.
Determined to expose the awful conditions at the dairy, PETA sent an undercover investigator to work at Grand Barr. The investigator confirmed the whistleblower’s horrific findings and more, including that the dairy owners left lame and crippled goats to limp in pain or crawl through waste, denied goats veterinary care for rupturing abscesses an owner attributed to a highly contagious bacterial infection, and left weak and coughing goats to die. On top of this egregious neglect, the owners were filmed punching and slapping goats as well as pulling their legs and tails.
PETA went back to Sheriff Johnson with the investigator’s fresh evidence of neglect in October. But his office has still taken no real action to help the animals suffering at Grand Barr.
Update: Just days after we submitted our investigator’s evidence to Sheriff Johnson, a second PETA investigator began working at the dairy. For two months, the new investigator documented that nothing had changed—even after the sheriff’s office cited one of the farm owners for neglect. Grand Barr is apparently under investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice; however, despite the sheriff’s promises, no charges have been formally filed and goats continue to suffer from painful and debilitating conditions with no veterinary care.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Johnson simply says he “personally didn’t feel it was necessary” to remove a single animal from this farm.
Oregon law is clear—it’s illegal to deny animals care and to physically abuse them. Law-enforcement officers have “the duty … to arrest and prosecute” anyone who violates the state’s cruelty-to-animals statute and the power to remove suffering animals from those responsible for mistreating them.
Please urge Sheriff Johnson to take action for these suffering animals at long last and to secure the removal of and appropriate care for every last goat from the farm.