Costco has stores in Torrance, Hawthorne, Inglewood and Culver City.
Gaylord Barkman, spokesman for Buckeye Veal, said the footage “was very sensationalized and is deceptive.”
“The intentional abuse to animals shown on the video was not on our farm, but on a dairy farm with no relation to Buckeye Veal, and also on a packing company with no relation to Buckeye Veal,” he said.
Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy For Animals, said the footage from other farms is “very clearly and explicitly marked in the video as such.”
“It’s impossible to talk about veal production without talking about dairy production because these are byproducts of calves and we need consumers to understand that,” he said.
Barkman acknowledged Buckeye Veal has 480 calves in the individual stalls, but added that 850 others have already been moved to “group housing,” and 150 more calves are scheduled to be transferred within the next four weeks.
The animal rights group, he added, chose not to show other calves “that were not ever tethered or tied and were able to roam around and mingle.”
Geoff Ball, a licensed veterinarian, said he believes chaining calves in narrow stalls causes “great stress to these normally social, herd animals.”
“In my opinion, chaining a normally social animal so that it cannot even turn around and to expect it to live its life that way is just cruel,” he said.
Runkle said the practice is common in the veal industry.
“Veal production represents one of the cruelest industries on the face of the planet, and its barbaric treatment of baby calves should not be tolerated by any socially responsible grocer,” he said. “Californians outlawed the cruel production of veal and it’s time that Costco makes the compassionate choice to end the sale of it in their stores.”
He urged customers to stop buying veal not only from Costco but other stores.
A representative for Costco had no immediate response to the activists’ request.
