Right now, every donation is matched until 31st December or until we reach our goal of £155,000. Don't miss out! DONATE NOW
Who We Are
What We Do
Issues
How You Can Help
Resources
Donate
News
Get the latest news and updates from Animal Equality

Animal Equality investigation reveals M&S milk supplier confining large calves in small, solitary pens

Animal Equality has released footage from a UK dairy farm flouting animal welfare laws which ban solitary housing for calves beyond eight weeks old. The Dorset farm supplies milk to Marks & Spencer, a supermarket that promotes itself as a leader in animal welfare standards.
28/03/2017 Updated: 14/11/2018

The footage from this Dorset farm and M&S supplier shows calves up to six months old caged in solitary pens, many so big they can barely take a step forward or back. It also shows them struggling to get into plastic hutches, designed to shelter them in poor weather, resulting in large open sores on their backs.

UK animal welfare law recognises how vitally important exercise and social interaction is for calves and restricts solitary housing to just eight weeks, yet on this farm our investigators found female calves as old as six months cramped and suffering in individual pens.

Separating day-old calves from their mothers and confining them in solitary pens is standard practice on dairy farms around the world. However, under UK law calves must be moved to group housing at eight-weeks old to fulfill their strong need for social interaction. Our footage clearly shows calves desperately trying to groom each other through the metal divides of their individual pens.

We alerted Dorset Trading Standards which checked the registration dates of the ear tag numbers on calves photographed by our investigators and confirmed that many were older than eight-weeks old. M&S also sent in auditors.

Around 1,000 calves are housed at Grange Dairy in East Chaldon, Dorset, which is owned by J.F. Cobb & Sons. This large farm rears female calves born on other local dairy units belonging to the company — a constant supply of calves being an unavoidable by-product of milk production.

According to its website, J.F. Cobb & Sons supply milk to M&S on a premium contract that rewards higher animal welfare. We are calling on M&S to break ties with this supplier immediately. We urge all supermarkets to implement a zero-tolerance policy when farms break animal welfare laws.

Labels and awards don’t help animals suffering in the dairy industry, but you can! Sign our pledge to receive dairy-free recipes and shopping tips: www.ianimal.uk/pledge

 

United Kingdom
Latest News
Controversial super-sized salmon farm given green light by Grimsby Planning Committee, in a move that experts deem “reckless”
01/12/2023
On Wednesday 29th November, Councillors on the Planning Committee for North East Lincolnshire Council approved proposals for a controversial on-land intensive salmon farm in Cleethorpes, with four opposing and seven in favour. With plans to produce 5,000 tonnes of dead fish per year, there are no other fish farms of this scale in operation currently in the UK. Once constructed, the facility will be one of the largest in the world.
This is force-feeding: unpublished images from farms in France
24/11/2023
Each year more than 200,000 tonnes of foie gras made by force-feeding are imported into the UK. Its production is so cruel that it is illegal to make in the UK, yet we hypocritically continue to permit imports. Previously unpublished images taken inside several duck farms in France show the terrible animal suffering involved in foie gras production.
Animal Equality Prompts Parliamentary Debate On Sale and Importation of Foie Gras
03/11/2023
Following conversations with Animal Equality, Giles Watling MP successfully tabled a Westminster Debate, speaking up for millions of ducks and geese trapped in cruel foie gras farms.