Maybe the story doesn’t make sense to you and many others because it involves something that the majority of us lack, which is a cognitive understanding of the dark underbelly of agribusiness. When we lack understanding, we find that it can be difficult to make sense of something.
If you think many farmers treat their animals like this you're nuts. Methinks you have an agenda. What's your association with "animal rights" groups ?
To be fair, I don't think we lack understanding about this...and "dark underbelly" is, I believe, a bit of an exaggeration!
That said, there certainly are cases of horrific animal abuse, of both domestic and farm animals. I think it's more prevalent with dogs, horses and "cock-fighting" rings than it is among farming operations (I'm not talking the industrial chicken farms - don't know much about that)...
Also, I suppose this whole family dairy farm operation could be incredibly corrupt (maybe the latest heir is a psychopath, too) and whenever it's determined who's culpable, the perp's should be shot, because the penalties for animal abuse are not severe enough in Ohio!!
(an aside: thank you for your work at the animal rescue! all but one of our dogs - 2 at the moment, 4 others in Heaven - have been adopted from shelters, and wonderful animals, so well deserving of a home! The one non-shelter dog was "rescued" from my mother-in-law, LOL! It's tragic there are so many out there, and bless you for helping them!)