Animal Partisan files misconduct complaint against Indiana State Police for actions at site of calf truck crash
October 1, 2025
Animal Partisan has filed an administrative complaint against the Indiana State Police (ISP) with Indiana’s Office of Inspector General, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health, and ISP itself over its response to a late 2024 calf trailer crash that caused additional, unnecessary suffering to traumatized and injured calves, and hindered visibility into the animal agriculture industry. A press release about our complaint was sent on September 30, 2025, and has already been picked up by local media.
Based on body-worn camera (BWC) footage obtained through Animal Partisan’s public records requests, the complaint details serious concerns about the methods by which ISP allowed grievously injured calves to be moved from the wreckage: chained by a single leg and dragged through the overturned trailer, before having their legs tightly bound and suspended upside-down from a forklift. The complaint additionally details two troopers repeatedly obscuring their BWCs while injured calves were being shot, undermining transparency at a moment when accountability is most needed.
On October 7, 2024, a semi-truck hauling 185 calves crashed and overturned on a highway near Lake Station, Indiana. Dozens of calves were killed in the crash, while more than 10 were “destroyed” by ISP due to the extent of their injuries. While ISP’s “Destruction of Severely Injured Animals” standard operating procedure requires troopers to use the most efficient, humane means to move injured animals who “require destruction,” the methods employed during this crash were anything but humane, violating even the loosest standards set forth by the meat industry.
Indeed, these actions depart from widely accepted industry standards, including the Meat Institute’s Recommended Animal Handling Guidelines, which deems dragging any animal, ambulatory or otherwise, a willful and egregious act of abuse—and is likewise prohibited by the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. These methods additionally deviate from the World Organization for Animal Health code regarding the slaughter of animals, which states that suspending or hoisting animals (other than farmed birds) by the feet or legs causes “avoidable suffering” as well as “severe pain and stress” and should not be used as a method of restraint. Industry guidance on responding to “large animal emergencies,” such as trailer crashes, echoes these sentiments as well.
Moreover, the bodycam footage appears to depict two troopers frequently and deliberately obscuring the views of their BWCs with their arms or jacket during the shootings of multiple calves. Not only does this violate ISP’s standard operating procedures, it additionally undermines the transparency that the use of BWCs is designed to bring to policing. It also raises the question: What compelled these troopers to violate protocol during such a critical time for transparency?
We are urging ISP to conduct a full and transparent investigation, take appropriate disciplinary action, mandate training and procedural reforms, and issue a public statement acknowledging this incident and committing to prevent future cruelty like this from occurring. Calves like these, whose lives are already cut short by the beef and dairy industries, don’t deserve to have their final moments spent in agony.
Watch a short compilation video of the actions that prompted our complaint against ISP below.
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