After seeing the recent undercover video from Mercy For Animals, which documented horrendous animal abuse, I immediately started learning as much as I could about Plain City, OH, the site of Conklin Farms. For someone who is very used to having his emails to politicians ignored, I was very happy with the prompt response I was given by the Mayor of Plain City, Sandy Adkins. Then, just minutes ago, I received another response from Sandy which just about knocked me off my chair. Read the entire press release below and tune in to CNN tonight at 7 PM ET to hear Gene Baur talk about the video. I will update and provide some commentary as information comes in.

For Immediate Release: May 26, 2010

Union County Sheriff Announces Arrest in Animal Cruelty Case

Sheriff Rocky Nelson announced today that Billy Joe Gregg, age 25, of Delaware County has been arrested and charged with 12 counts of Cruelty to Animals, a misdemeanor of the second degree. Gregg, who is being housed in the Tri County Jail in Mechanicsburg, Ohio, will be arraigned at 8:00 am on May 27, 2010 in Marysville Municipal Court. The investigation is being conducted jointly by the Sheriff’s Office and Humane Agents from the Union County Humane Society. Deputies from the Union County Sheriff’s Office were called to the Conklin Dairy Farm at12939 US 42 this morning around 6:00 am to provide security for an employee termination. After learning the reason for the termination, a criminal investigation was begun. The investigation has revealed approximately 20 hours of raw video footage depicting events that occurred at the Conklin Dairy Farm over the last 4-5 weeks. The video was turned into the Marysville City Attorney’s Office and then turned over to the Union County Humane Society on May 24, 2010. The video was submitted by an organization called Mercy for Animals. The investigation is on-going at this time and may result in further charges.