Fairlife and Coca-Cola are left to face the music after an undercover video surfaced last week, showing severe calf abuse at Fair Oaks Farms. Based in Indiana, the farm supplies milk to the popular milk brand Fairlife — a partner of the Coca-Cola company..
The video was filmed by an employee of the Animal Recovery Mission, sent undercover to work at Fair Oaks Farm in calf care for several months. Last week, the 90-minute video was released, exposing employees at the farm for contributing to animal abuse and calling out managers for ignoring the abuse. In response to the disturbing footage, several retailers have pulled Fairlife products from their shelves.
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Mike McCloskey, co-founder at Fair Oaks Farms, released his own video stating that the company takes full responsibility for the abuse and all employees associated with abuse in the ARM video have been terminated.
The farm plans to install cameras at all points in its facilities where human and animal interaction takes place — they say the footage will be live and accessible to the public. McCloskey said they will also hire a full-time animal welfare specialist and an independent auditor to “perform frequent, random and unannounced audits of the animal welfare practices at the farm.”
Despite these after-the-fact efforts, the public is calling for a boycott of products made from Fair Oaks milk. A Change.org petition was created asking people to boycott Fairlife products and asking Coca-Cola to end its relationship with the milk brand. The petition states, “Abuse like this does not happen without more people at the company knowing about it. This not ‘only four employees’ committing these acts and there is no telling how long this has been going on.”
Jewel-Osco, Tony’s Fresh Market, Strack & VanTil and Family Express stores are among the Midwest retailers who have pulled Fairlife milk from their shelves. As for Coca-Cola’s response, Jim Dinkins, president of Coca-Cola North America, released a statement: “As the world’s largest beverage company, it is our responsibility to lead in times like this. People have high expectations of Coca-Cola’s conduct and products, and we recognize that we must play a stronger role in improving animal welfare across the dairy industry.”