Activist Charged With Waiting Too Long To Report Animal Abuse
WELD COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - A woman who went undercover to expose animal abuse at a cattle company near Weld County is now facing charges.
Taylor Radig is an investigator with the animal rights group "Compassion Over Killing." She filmed undercover video while working at the Quanah Cattle Company from July through September.
The undercover video shows calves being pulled, thrown, dragged and kicked.
The sheriff's office has now cited Radig for animal cruelty because she waited too long to show investigators the footage.
"If you really care about animals, act upon it immediately and make sure it gets stopped. If they wanted to develop a pattern of this they had it in a couple of days," said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke.
Cooke says Radig waited two months after leaving the company before handing over the video to his office.
"Can you imagine all the baby calves they could've protected for those four months? They could have stopped that cruelty in a week by coming to us, presenting the evidence, and we would've done the exact same thing we did now. But they chose not to do that," said Cooke.
Compassion Over Killing's executive director emailed CBS4 a statement. She called the charge against Radig "political motivation," and goes on to say "Undermining the integrity of the legal system, this shoot-the-messenger strategy is aimed at distracting attention away from the crimes of those who actually abused animals."
Cook says he doesn't believe that's true.
"It's total propaganda on their part. If anyone is doing something political it's them," said Cooke.
If convicted Radig faces up to 18 months in prison.
The three workers seen in the video have been fired and are facing animal cruelty charges.
Written By Heather Burke
