High-protein milk brand Fairlife has been hit with a second wave of proposed class action lawsuits – one of which names JV partner Coca-Co...
The cases were filed after non-profit animal welfare group Animal Recovery Mission released videos from an undercover investigation of Fair Oaks Farms showing animals being mistreated, which prompted Fairlife to suspend deliveries from the farm and step up audits at all of its other milk suppliers. Several retailers have also removed Fairlife from shelves.
The third complaint – filed in the Northern District of Georgia on June 13 - names Coca-Cola as a co-defendant, with plaintiff Eliana Salzhauer alleging that shoppers are paying over the odds for a brand that proactively touts its animal welfare credentials when in fact its cows “are the victims of horrendous animal abuse.”
“The cruelty and suffering inflicted on the cows and calves at Fair Oaks Farms—the flagship farm for the Fairlife Products—was so significant that it has led to criminal charges being brought against three individuals.”
Citing a statement Coca-Cola issued on June 6 in which it unveiled plans to conduct “independent investigations of all fairlife’s dairy suppliers,” the complaint adds:
“Coca-Cola has, at all times relevant to this lawsuit, including to this day, maintained control over Fairlife—including regulating animal welfare.”
It goes on to accuse Coca-Cola and Fairlife of of engaging in fraud, unjust enrichment, and violating state consumer protection laws in Florida (where the plaintiff lives) and Illinois (where Fairlife is based).
'A massive consumer fraud'
In a fourth complaint filed against Fairlife and founders Mike and Sue Mccloskey on June 17 in the Northern District of Indiana (where Fair Oaks Farms is based), plaintiffs Mohammad Sabeehullah and Nabil Khan accused them of "engaging in a massive consumer fraud involving the sale of milk products.
“Defendants exploited consumer desire for dairy products originating from farms that ensure increased levels of animal well-being by making their representations a central premise in their labeling strategy. Defendants executed these actions while methodically mistreating their cows.”
Fairlife ‘devastated’ by footage
About a dozen retailers have pulled Fairlife from their shelves, including Jewel-Osco, Tony’s Fresh Market and Pete’s Fresh Market, while the Newton County Sheriff’s Office has also announced charges against three workers identified in the video as participating in the abuse, but not against Fair Oaks Farms directly.
In an email to FoodNavigator-USA, Fairlife said: “We are aware of the lawsuits and are reviewing them. Fairlife is committed to the humane and compassionate care of animals. As we previously shared, we are taking immediate actions to ensure our high standards of animal welfare are being executed at each of our supplying farms.”
The company added that it was “devastated” by the footage and had immediately suspended deliveries from Fair Oaks Farms, which it claimed supplied less than 5% of its milk.
Fairlife: ‘We’ve also received support from many retailers’
It is auditing all 30 of its supplying farms in the next 30 days and will require that all employees be recertified in animal welfare training annually. It also said it would increase the number of unannounced animal welfare audits at its supplying dairies from one to 24 per year.
“In addition to the immediate actions we have taken, we are actively working on a comprehensive update to our animal welfare and quality assurance program. We know we can play an important role in improving animal welfare across the dairy industry and are committed to putting enhanced practices and procedures in place to ensure this doesn’t happen at our dairy suppliers.”
Asked about how the incident had impacted Fairlife’s business, the spokesperson said: “A small variety of retailers have communicated their plans to remove our products until the situation is resolved but we’ve also received support from many retailers who have chosen to keep our products on shelves.”
Coca-Cola conducting independent investigations
Coca-Cola did not respond immediately to a request for comment on the lawsuit, but released a statement on June 6 saying that it was conducting “independent investigations of all fairlife’s dairy suppliers to ensure they uphold the highest standards of animal welfare.”
Mike McCloskey: Our 'see something, say something,' policy worked
Mike McCloskey, a veterinarian-turned-farmer, said he was "disgusted by and take full responsibility for the actions seen in the footage, as it goes against everything that we stand for in regards to responsible cow care and comfort."
He added that three of the four employees shown in the video had already been terminated months ago after being identified by co-workers as abusive to animals and reported to management. The fourth has since been terminated.
Yeah, same thing in Norway this days after have screened an Video of animal abuse, pure pety creulty, against creatures that have no options, what so ever and this death camps, firghtens the living daylight out of everything, incl me, and animals isnt that stupid.
ReplyDeleteAgain, what is it that makes humans do this, complyance is to me, the same, ignoring it, and then captured, and blames, what, stress among empolyed, huh, the best is, re reading and of course look at our own Rutines, quality managments, of course, its the pesky Rutines that is the shit in the machine, right.
Cheep meat, you say, factory farming, is an solution that must be killed off, thrown into the dust binn of history, cheep meat isnt an exuse for treating animals as shit, its an sympthome of something gone wrong, large indebted to their eyeballs farms, need massive amount of meat to survive, larger scale, cramp conditions, an convaior system where animals are slaughtered an mass, have you seen the chiken wacker in action, have you, an spinning wheel of saws, yeah, and somehow, its ok, because we rule, rule by fear, is to me an hall mark of low life scums, and I blame them all, they all knew, dont tell me fairy tales of 3 monkeys, they all knew, period.
The factorys must die.
How is it, when the farmers whine about price, if an chiken is worth what, an buck, and ends up much more expencive, on the shop, that differance is pockeded by somebody, and like fish, where the price rises 6 times, before th store, it all goes to few large entetys, like farming.
They are an relic of industrical scale of f..... everything, and that monopolys, few faimlys owns virutally everything, and sucks the life out of the rest.
This is probably one of the few sustainable ways of ending poverty, poverty isnt an choice, poverty is imposed, where large countrys are forced into few sorts, monoculture, and is nothing more than cheep labour for the corps sucking land out of the world population, Africa is an briliant ex. South-america another one.
The corpoRats rule must end, one day, is nothing but an class war, and right now, we are loosing, fight back or we will never make it, only to be slaves.
One way of ending this atrocetys, is simple in this days of Gov survailance, every farm that deliveres to the public should have open cameras so anyone can axcsess the system and go anywhere in the farm that have or is been used by the animals, no exceptions what so ever. Since its also an question of public safty, etc, etc, and crimes.
If they dont comply, just kill it.
Period.
Its so bad I dont tuch mutch anymore, more and more carefull of what I do handle, maybe end up as I said to our girl, you can be 90% vegitarian, but eat fish, etc to meat, from time to time, this days even I am sickened by what we do to animals, etc, to fishfarms, shit in, shit out, if something will kill us eventually, is monocultre, farming to humanity, and some f..... whines about CO2.
Yeah, we are indeed f.....
peace