$100K Bond Set for Ohio Man in Cow Abuse Case

A dairy farm worker accused of abusing cows in an undercover video has had his bond set at $100,000 by an Ohio judge.

A Marysville Municipal Court clerk said 25-year-old Billy Joe Gregg Jr. of Delaware, Ohio, remained in jail after Thursday's hearing. He was charged Wednesday with 12 counts of cruelty to animals and is due back in court June 10 to enter a plea.

An animal welfare group says video it recorded for an undercover investigation showed Gregg and others beating cows with crowbars and poking them with pitchforks at Conklin Dairy Farms Inc.

The video was recorded in an undercover investigation, 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.

Click here to see the video on Mercy For Animals' website. Be advised, content is graphic and disturbing.

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.

The farm in Plain City, northwest of Columbus, has condemned the video footage and says it fired Gregg.

Court officials say Gregg does not yet have an attorney and has requested a public defender.

Last year, Mercy For Animals, which is based in Chicago, released a video showing workers at an Iowa egg hatchery tossing male chicks into a grinder. Industry groups said such instantaneous euthanasia was a common practice because male chicks can't lay eggs or be raised quickly enough to be sold for meat.

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.