Video Appears To Show Cows 'Screaming' As 18,000 Burn to Death in Texas

Video has emerged appearing to show the fire that ripped through a Texas dairy farm on Monday, which killed an estimated 18,000 cows and left one employee critically injured.

The incident took place at South Fork Dairy, a farm located south-west of Amarillo.

In the footage smoke can be seen billowing out of the farm, while cows can be heard calling out, in apparent pain or distress.

Speaking to the BBC following the inferno, Castro County Sheriff's Office said an "estimated 18,000 head of cattle" had been destroyed.

Sherriff Sal Rivera told local network KFDA only a small percentage of the cows in the farm are still alive.

He said: "There's some that survived, there's some that are probably injured to the point where they'll have to be destroyed."

On Tuesday, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Amarillo Region arrived at the site to help with the clear-up operation.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), a D.C.-based charity, said the South Fork Dairy blaze is the deadliest barn fire for cattle since its records began.

Margie Fishman, the institute's public relation manager, said: "We hope the industry will remain focused on this issue and strongly encourage farms to adopt common sense fire safety measures. It is hard to imagine anything worse than being burned alive."

Video of the incident was posted on Twitter by 'Direct Action Everywhere,' which claims to be a "grassroots network of animal rights activists."

They commented: "HORRIFYING! At least 18,000 individuals were killed in an explosion at a dairy farm in Texas. With no way out, they burned to death."

PETA shared a 45-second clip of the fire's aftermath on Twitter, showing the huge cowshed had been devastated by the blaze.

It added: "Over 18,000 cows were killed in an explosion at this dairy farm in Texas. THIS is the dairy industry. This tragedy could've been avoided if these cows weren't being factory farmed in the first place."

According to the AWI over 6.5 million farm animals have been killed in barn fires across the United States, since 2013, most of which were chickens.

In October 2022, 73 cars were burned after a blaze engulfed a parking lot at the Robinson Family Farm in Temple, Texas, which was hosting a pumpkin-themed event.

A barn fire in Waseca, southern Minnesota, which took place in May 2021, killed around 12,000 pigs, including 9,000 piglets.

In September 2019 more than 4,000 animals were killed by a fire that ripped through several barns in Greenup County, Kentucky.