WSPA protests proposed UK dairy cow ‘battery’ farm

Footage released revealing shocking conditions found in the worst intensive US farms; 100 protesting ‘cows’ to run amok on central London streets as Ipsos MORI survey reveals 60% of people would never buy milk from ‘battery’ cows. Gigantic sheds, housing thousands of ‘battery’ cows which have little or no access to grazing and are milked a gruelling three times a day, producing milk that could have fewer nutrients. That American reality is the future for dairy farming and milk production in the UK if a massive indoor farm at Nocton in Lincolnshire housing 8100 high yield Holstein dairy cows gets the go-ahead, says WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals), one of the world’s leading international animal welfare charities. Today WSPA UK is releasing shocking footage revealing the conditions that cows can be subjected to in the worst incidences inside US industrial mega dairies. This footage is a warning to the UK that allowing industrial dairy farming to become the norm could pave the way for extremes of poor welfare and environmental pollution as found in the USA today. Filmed at several locations in California over seven days in July by an undercover WSPA team posing as documentary makers, the footage reveals vast factory-like milk production systems where cows are housed in seemingly endless sheds surrounded by manure-filled lagoons, fly infestations and row upon row of female heifer calf crates. Mike Baker, Chief Executive of WSPA, said: “During our …