Animal Rights Activist Who Recorded Undercover Videos at Cattle Company Cited For Animal Cruelty

An animal rights activist who went undercover and recorded incidents of animal abuse at a Colorado cattle company for an animal rights organization was cited Friday by authorities for animal cruelty.

Taylor Radig was cited for animal cruelty, a Class 1 misdemeanor, for waiting two months after she had stopped working at Quanah Cattle Co. to report the abuse.

"Radig's failure to report the alleged abuse of the animals in a timely manner adheres to the definition of acting with negligence and substantiates the charges Animal Cruelty," Weld County Sheriff John Cooke said in a press release.

"Through the ongoing investigation, Radig was cited for Animal Cruelty (class 1 misdemeanor) due to her believed participation in the cattle abuse incidents to the Weld County Sheriff's Office," it added.

Taylor Radig, an animal rights activist, was cited Friday for animal cruelty. (Image source: Weld County Sheriff)

The video she shot for animal rights organization Compassion Over Killing shows individuals pulling cattle by their ears, lifting them by their tails and forcibly removing them off trucks.

The executive director of the organization, Erica Meier, reportedly said the charges were "unsupported by the law" and a “shoot-the-messenger strategy aimed at detracting attention away from the crimes of those who actually abused animals.”

“The Weld County Sheriff’s Office has chosen to retaliate against the individual who witnessed, documented and reported the callous mistreatment of newborn calves,” Meier said in an email to The Coloradoan. “Merely witnessing others abusing animals is not a crime, and our investigator (Radig) was working cooperatively with local authorities on this case prior to this baseless accusation.”

Three other individuals were previously cited for animal cruelty in the case after the undercover video was turned into authorities by Radig.

--

Follow Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) on Twitter

[related]