Dairy workers charged with abuse at farm linked to Nestle
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-dairy-abuse-20140213,0,3757479.story
Workers for Wiese Brothers Farms in Greenleaf, Wis. -- a dairy that supplied a cooperative used by Nestle -- have been charged with animal cruelty.
Dairy workers charged with abuse at farm linked to Nestle
By David Pierson
February 13, 2014, 2:25 p.m.
Four dairy workers at a Wisconsin farm linked to Nestle were charged with animal cruelty after being caught on hidden camera beating, whipping and cutting animals.
Abelardo Jaimes, Crescencio Pineda, Lucia Martinez and Misael Monge-Minero were charged with 11 counts of animal cruelty. The workers belonged to Wiese Brothers Farms in Greenleaf a dairy that supplied a cooperative named Foremost Farms.
Foremost Farms is a cheese supplier to Nestles pizza division, which makes the DiGiorno brand. The cooperative no longer works with Wiese Brothers Farms, a spokeswoman for Nestle said.
The surreptitious video was shot by an investigator for Mercy for Animals, a Los Angeles-headquartered animals rights group. The footage shows the workers violently beating the animals and dragging sick cows by the neck with loaders.