Posted on 05/27/2010 9:19:17 AM PDT by ResistorSister
MARYSVILLE, Ohio -- A man accused of abusing cows at a local dairy farm said in court Thursday that he is studying to become a police officer in Ohio.
Billy Joe Gregg, 25, appeared in court, charged with 12 counts of cruelty to animals.
The charges against Gregg were filed after an animal welfare group released graphic video Tuesday that was secretly recorded and shows workers at Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City beating cows with crowbars, stabbing them with pitchforks and punching them in their heads.
The video shows workers holding down newborn calves and stomping on their heads. It shows one worker wiring a cow's nose to a metal bar near the ground and repeatedly beating it with another bar while it bleeds.
Click here to watch the full video clip. (WARNING: The video is graphic and disturbing.)
Bond was set for Gregg at $100,000. He asked for a court-appointed attorney and claimed in court that he is a disabled Army veteran and former police officer.
He said he has spent the last six years in the Army and is studying to become a police officer in Ohio.
Prosecutors said charges are possible against other people.
Each of the 12 charges holds a maximum fine of $750 and is punishable by 90 days in jail. According to the prosecutor, if convicted, Gregg could face 90 days in jail per charge.
Gregg is next scheduled to appear in court on June 10 at 8 a.m. for a preliminary hearing.
The video was recorded in an undercover investigation at the farm, said Mercy For Animals, a not-for-profit group that publicizes what it calls cruel practices in the dairy, meat and egg industries and promotes a vegan diet.
Conklin Dairy Farms, a fourth-generation family operation based in Plain City, said it takes the care of its cows and calves very seriously and had reviewed the video.
"The video shows animal care that is clearly inconsistent with the high standards we set for our farm and its workers, and we find the specific mistreatment shown on the video to be reprehensible and unacceptable," Gary Conklin, of Conklin Dairy Cattle Sales LLC, said Tuesday night in an e-mailed statement. "We will not condone animal abuse on our farm."
An Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesperson told NBC 4 that 100 percent of Conklin Dairy Farms' milk is sold to Minerva Dairy in Minerva, Ohio. The ODA said Minerva does not sell the milk to stores, but uses it to make cheese. The ODA spokesperson said Minerva is not required to report stores selling its products to the state.
Minerva Farms plant manager Dave Saling tells NBC 4 his company has discontinued all business with Conklin Dairy Farms. He declined to name which retailers sell its products in the Central Ohio market.
Mercy For Animals' executive director, Nathan Runkle, said the cow video was shot between April 28 and Sunday by an undercover worker at the dairy, about 25 miles northwest of Columbus. He said the documented abuse violates Ohio's anti-animal cruelty statute.
This perp is exactly the sort of person who becomes a death camp guard when circumstances permit.
Yep - I believe you have a keen understanding of the perp’s character.
Holy Moly, calm down. No one was twisting your arm to say anything.
“Billy Joe”
Of course. I hope the younger female members of his family have had the chance to grab their webbed-footed children and escape during his incarceration.
“His shameful actions, viciously beating, stomping, and stabbing defenseless cows and newborn calves, should be condemned by fellow vets and police officers.”
What makes you think any cops or military vets support this guy?
Wrong is wrong. One of the things wrong is group identity and group politics.
Someone will have to research his past judgment - but while watching the video we saw his present judgment and it was that of a psycho.
Anyone else hear Dueling Banjos playing in the background?
Wrong, yes; however, group identity and group politics happens all of the time - and it is going to happen in this case too.
He sounds psyco. Lock him up.””
BS- Shoot the bastard.
Doesn’t sound like this **** for brains knew how to milk a cow.
Under what pretext was he doing this?
Sounds like the guards gone wild in Iraq (who in no way reflected on our military although the media tried to make the connection just as this vegan group is trying to smear the entire dairy industry).
I think you have the solution.
I find it frightening to ever have some one like this in positions of authority where physical force may be used. Sounds like he sought out these positions (military, police) just like a pedophile seeks out positions with kids.
I hope this record goes before him to keep him from ever being a cop on the street.
He did it under the pretext that the cows understood his verbal commands and they were just being disobedient.
The same pretext was used when he told the newborn calf to let go of the feeding tube and she wouldn't - he had no choice but to twist her neck, throw her on the ground and stomp on her because it was the only way he could get her to listen. (of course I am being facetious.)
You'll find that even if it prevents him from becoming a police officer, it wouldn't prevent him from being a security guard or tow truck driver.
Attn: All Ohio dogs. Another psycho on his way.
...or a mall cop
Something about this whole story/episode doesn't add up, IMHO...
Cleveland paper reported this a.m. that the owner of the farm also was seen on video abusing the cows...so it's not a case of one random psychopath committing horrendous acts of cruelty, unless the paper got the story wrong...
So, we have a whole group of psycho dairy farm workers inflicting (or at least complicit in) terrible abuse on innocent livestock, despite being within 25 miles of the state capitol, within easy range of Farm Bureau inspectors, and probably involved with customers, neighbors, delivery people, etc...
Not to mention, it really is critical right now to avoid even the slightest appearance of animal abuse, with the state poised to impose stringent animal rights regulations at the first hint of an excuse for it...
and this 4th generation dairy farm business is either ignorant or unconcerned about that, as well as all being unspeakably, inhumanly cruel across the board?
Did not watch the video, and if these accusations are true, then the perpetrators should be taken out and shot, after first being subjected for a few hours to the same treatment they gave the animals...
But the whole sordid story just doesn't make sense to me...
Maybe the story doesn’t make sense to you and many others because it involves something that the majority of us lack, which is a cognitive understanding of the dark underbelly of agribusiness. When we lack understanding, we find that it can be difficult to make sense of something.
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