Dairy workers charged with abuse at farm linked to Nestle

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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 Nestle’s 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.