Animal Equality Italy has released a new investigation which documents the horrors of buffalo mozzarella production in Northern Italy.
THE DETAILS: In addition to the exclusive images shot by our investigators, Animal Equality has collected testimonials of people who can, first-hand, report on the conditions of these farms, farms where almost half a million buffaloes are bred every year. Interviewing Italian personalities, such as journalist Giulia Innocenzi and former parliamentarian Paolo Bernini, help paint the picture of neglect on these farms, where numerous parliamentary inspections documented the illegal sewage spills in the Caserta area.
The images collected by Animal Equality are coupled with videos from” Four Paws International”, a German organization for the protection of animals that has conducted several investigations in farms for the production of buffalo mozzarella in Campania.
SHOCKING IMAGES: The up-until-now unpublished footage and pictures collected by Animal Equality investigators leave no room for doubt. The videos clearly show: Animals covered in mud and feces up to their knees Buffaloes covered with flies and forced to live alongside bodies of dead animals. A corpse of buffalo clumsily hidden under straw and feces Ill-treatment of buffaloes and degraded sanitary living conditions. Baby male buffalos abandoned to die of hunger and thirst after being torn from their mothers.
NON-COMPLIANT: Our investigators were also able to document the crumbling conditions of the farm and non-compliant treatment from a veterinary and hygienic-sanitary standpoint. For example, we found unauthorized workers who, without veterinary supervision and hygienic precautions, administering drugs to the animals.
DEVASTATING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: The production of buffalo mozzarella has a very strong environmental impact on the surrounding area, with cases of disastrous spills of waste directly into nearby waterways. Thanks to the images of former parliamentarian Paolo Bernini, we were able to document illegal spills of sewage in the province of Naples and Caserta. In the video, you can see streams of sewage that end up in the surrounding lands and then into the drinkable water table – slurry obviously untreated.
Nobody should hear the roar of the “garbage calves”
“Cimitieri dei bufali” – buffalo cemeteries – are the name of these gruesome sites, they are testimonies of almost everyday animal suffering in this part of Europe.
Most are only a few days old, male buffalo calves. Because they do not give milk and their slightly wild-tasting meat so far hardly anyone would like to eat, the farmers have no interest in the rearing.
Then simply not feeding the superfluous male animals is a “widespread practice”.
Growing the calves with breast milk or liquefied milk powder every day is not profitable from a purely business perspective.
So that no one can hear the roar of the hungry “garbage calves”, their mouths will be tied. Some farmers even drown the animals in manure. The carcasses often land in a nearby river, where they are sometimes driven into the sea.
WHAT COMES NEXT: In Italy, more effective controls, specific laws and concrete actions by institutions are needed to protect animals, the territory and the public’s health. It is up to us to do everything in our power to stop these cruelties. Please boycott these products and help us end this market of suffering. And share this post – everyone must know the truth.
My comment: 47 million kilograms “Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP” – buffalo mozzarella in short – were produced in Italy in 2017.
The Italian investigative journalist Giulia Innocenzi has made inquiries and reported such catastrophic conditions in public service broadcasting in Italy.
She has discovered that some breeders simply let their animals die after giving birth – thus saving their food for the first few days of life and about 20 euros for slaughtering in the slaughterhouse. Other breeders kill the baby buffalo with a hammer themselves or throw them with legs tied together and alive into rivers or lakes, so that the animals drown.
Even the life-saving female calves have no nice life ahead of them.
Often the boxes are so small that the buffaloes can not even turn around. They are tied to the ground where urine and excrement accumulate and they are raised with milk substitutes.
In addition, the animals are injected with the hormone oxytocin, which is supposed to help overcome the pain of separation.
All this is known and these terrifying facts have been exposed to the public several times. But as we have often said, the consumers (and polluters of this suffering) do not want to know about this reality, because that is the most effective way of taking no responsibility.
Most people intentionally ignore the suffering of farm animals; the meat and milk mafia with the help of the media and their lobbyists has generated this indifference so that it can continue to exist.
As soon as we empathize with animal suffering and stop eating animals, this fascist system with its life-disdaining ideology also ceases to exist.
My best regards to all, Venus
Bloody corpses piled on the backs of live sheep on a conveyor, who are left to struggle under the immense weight;
Workers using brute force to try and pull trapped sheep out of the conveyor belt, causing pain and distress;
World Animals Voice 