Dear Mark,

Viva! Campaigns has investigated another large dairy farm in Wales and sadly documented some of the worst cases of physical violence against animals we have ever seen. At the time of filming, the farm, Tafarn Y Bugail, supplied one of the largest dairy cooperatives in the UK.

The first time we entered the farm, at the dead of night, the sight of a rotting cow and four calves hit us. Their bodies had been left outside, uncovered and accessible to wild birds and animals. As we crept closer, we could see that they had been eaten down to the bone – a clear indication that these animals had been abandoned and dead for some time.  

On another visit, I saw the pathetic sight of baby calves isolated in hutches. Some were less than 12 hours old. These babies had been ripped from their mothers and were confined and shivering in the bitterly cold night. They had no love, warmth, comfort or stimulation and nowhere to go. It was the middle of winter!

Inside the maternity pens, conditions were chaotic, noisy and disgusting. We were shocked to find a colony of feral cats sleeping in the straw beds. They were devouring afterbirth; it was like a scene from a horror film. The fetid stench was horrendous.

Desperate for their mothers  One of the most distressing things we filmed were newborn female calves isolated from their mothers, crying out and desperately sucking our fingers for comfort.

Calf Pulling We filmed a cow having difficulty giving birth. The worker’s solution was to tie a rope to the calf’s protruding feet and forcibly haul him out, causing agony for the mother. Afterwards, the worker kicked the cow in the spine with his heel to force her to stand. Such cruelty is incomprehensible.

Repeatedly Beaten Cows were repeatedly and mercilessly beaten. We recorded one poor animal being hit harder and harder – a sickening 55 times. Other cows were subjected to being kicked in the udder and suffering blows to their legs, backs and faces.

Shocking footage shows ‘half-eaten dead cows’ at UK dairy farm

Shocking footage shows ‘half-eaten dead cows’ at UK dairy farm | UK News | Metro News

The gentle mother, who simply didn’t know what was wanted of her, was pushed around and her tail twisted. The worker became angry very quickly, hitting the cow with increasing force to make her stand in position for milking. The cow had nowhere to escape, and it was absolutely harrowing to witness her pain.

A second cow was kicked in her already swollen udder – in a final act of indignity. The violence delivered to these poor animals was the worst I have seen, with blows landing on their legs, backs and to the sides of their faces.
In another instance, one of the farm workers used a knife to burst a huge abscess on a cow’s rump during milking. A stream of pus oozed onto the milking parlour floor for over three minutes. 

We saw 17 cows in the parlour wearing hobbles on their back legs. These chains are to stop cows ‘doing the splits’ when they have suffered damage from birthing or falling, usually on dirty, wet floors. These sad and ill animals could barely walk. But they were still being milked. 

Please donate to our campaign and you’ll be helping fund justice for these animals!

Your donations are crucial and help fund:

DAIRY FARMING EXPOSED   Donate Now » We’ll never give up the fight for animals and I’m hoping you’ll join us on our next Day of Action on Saturday 27 January 2024.  We’re organising the biggest Day of Action Against Dairy in history where we will air our hard-hitting undercover investigations that expose the truth about dairy farming. We’ll be calling on the general public to stand up against animal cruelty and choose vegan. Help us cover every single city, town and village across the country by organising an event on your local high street. The animals need you to speak up for them! Together we can make this the biggest protest against dairy the industry has ever faced. Mark, thank you for being a part of Viva! Please, give what you can so we can continue to expose the vile practice of UK dairy farming and get the message out there. Any money you can donate – no matter how little – will help us in our fight against this appalling abuse of mothers and their babies.  With your help we can fight dairy consumption and its inherent cruelty.  We can’t do it without you!   Yours for the animals, Juliet Gellatley Founder and Director