Mission: Help Water Buffaloes Suffering on a Canadian Farm

Posted by Calvin on October 24, 2023

After a whistleblower reported that animals were suffering from painful health issues in filthy conditions on a farm owned by the Ontario Water Buffalo Company, PETA investigators went to scope it out for themselves. What they learned will shock you. 😲

Neglect and Confinement

On their visit to the farm—which exploits water buffaloes for meat and dairy items like buffalo mozzarella—PETA investigators found buffaloes kept in a “wet slop” of feces, and the whistleblower revealed that animals had been confined to cramped pens for months. 😰 The whistleblower reported that one animal fell and couldn’t stand back up due to the sludge of feces—she was finally dragged out with ropes to be milked.

According to the whistleblower, animals also suffered from many health problems. A blind calf who couldn’t stand allegedly struggled for two weeks before dying. 😢

Imagine how torturous a situation like this would be: You can’t see anything or stand up, and you’re left to struggle without receiving help from anyone as you die slowly. You’re a baby—brand new to the world—but your world is dark and frightening. Without eyesight, you try to make sense of the sounds and smells around you and keep surviving. But it’s getting harder and harder—you’re desperately thirsty but you can’t find the water bucket. You can barely move, but no one’s coming to your aid.

As tragic as it is to think about living like this, imagine dying like this, too. Every day, you’re getting weaker and more desperate for help. You’ve been in a constant state of anxious misery for weeks. Your body starts to shut down, and you die feeling alone—just as you felt when you were alive. No baby deserves to live and die this way, no matter what species they are.

Other animals on the farm are said to have suffered from open wounds, abscesses, and sores without getting proper treatment—and in some cases, they got no treatment at all.

The whistleblower said that weaned calves weren’t given sufficient hay—and the hay they were given was moldy and wet—and they became thin and weak. They also reportedly suffered from parasites and diarrhea. Allegedly, health problems like these are kinda the norm on this farm: Many animals apparently became too weak to even stand. 😡

Horrible Birthing Conditions

If someone were preparing to give birth, you’d want to get them into a spacious, bedded area, right? Well, the farm never got the memo on this. According to the whistleblower, workers forced buffaloes to deliver their calves in a tiny, filthy pen and a gutter and other expectant mothers had to give birth in mud, ponds, or piles of feces. 🤢 Reportedly, some calves even suffocated in feces after being born.  

A PETA investigator saw calves taken from their mothers soon after birth and heard a mother calling out to her calf over and over. This is fr a mother’s worst nightmare—how could anyone feel OK treating someone this way?

So Many Health Problems

Ready for even more evidence that the farm didn’t provide these animals with proper care? The whistleblower never saw a farrier come to trim their hooves. With their hooves overgrown, many animals allegedly had trouble walking.

According to the whistleblower, some buffaloes’ horns grew downward toward their faces and one animal’s horn scraped their face. Reportedly, a manager had to cut it off, leading to a ton of bleeding.

PETA’s investigation found that buffaloes suffered from uterine prolapse, a painful condition in which animals’ internal reproductive tissue pokes out from their bodies. 😨 The whistleblower said that many of these animals were still bred and milked after their uteruses were stitched back into their bodies.

A Completely Unnatural Environment

The farm claims to raise water buffaloes “how nature intended,” yet it puts these animals—who are native to a tropical environment in Asia—through frigid Canadian winters. 🤦 One of the farm’s owners admitted that some animals got frostbite and lost patches of fur, and the whistleblower said that some also lost teats and parts of their ears. Hmm, doesn’t sound very natural to us. 🤔

We aren’t the only ones who think the farm is forcing buffaloes to endure miserable lives. The former chair of the Ontario solicitor general’s Animal Care Review Board, Dr. Mary Richardson, saw the footage and said, “Not only do the buffaloes show signs of physical distress, but the conditions they are kept in are deplorable.” Facts.

PETA submitted evidence of this blatant disregard for the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act to Ontario’s Animal Welfare Services—but five months after the complaint, the farm is still making animals endure filthy conditions and neglect.

How You Can Help

There are two huge ways you can help stop the buffaloes’ suffering. First, don’t buy any animal-derived foods. 🙅‍♀️ A claim of “natural” on meat and dairy items is only used so companies can market better and make a buck—if profit’s involved, animal welfare is never a top priority.

Then join us in urging Canadian grocer Longo’s to reconsider selling products made from buffalo milk. Just:

1. Go to Longo’s’ Instagram page.

2. Comment on any post and ask the grocers to reconsider selling products made from buffalo milk. You can use our sample message, but feel free to personalize it.

I just saw a PETA exposé that shows water buffaloes suffering in appalling conditions on a farm owned by the Ontario Water Buffalo Company, which produces buffalo milk used in some dairy products. The animals were allegedly denied proper care, forced to give birth in a small, filthy pen, and struggling to walk with overgrown hooves. A whistleblower even reported that a blind calf suffered for two weeks before dying. Please immediately reconsider your decision to sell products made from these animals’ milk.

3. Take a screenshot of your message and submit it for 25 peta2 points from our Rewards Program.