the true dairy

Juliet Gellatley, founder of Viva!, goes undercover with her team to investigate cruel milk supplier of Costa Coffee

Viva! received a tip-off from an ex-worker of Home Farm in Deal, not far from the glorious white cliffs of Dover A large dairy farm, it supplies the huge Freshways company, who in turn sell to big national brands – including Costa Coffee The informant said that they’d witnessed numerous incidents of violence, with workers hitting the animals They also said that sick cows were routinely neglected We had to see for ourselves

I invited Wendy Turner Webster to join me – one of our longest-serving patrons who had never been to a dairy farm before I immediately felt sorry for her! I realised I had not sufficiently prepared her for what we were confronted with

We walked along a rough country path, following my nose as the dark smell of filth hit the back of my throat I first noticed wheelie bins outside a huge industrial shed and inside was a crumpled, dead calf, her legs tied together with twine.

It was upsetting explaining to Wendy the fate of all babies in the dairy industry. Female calves replace their mums for a grueling life of repeated pregnancies and milking Little males are often killed as teetering babies, just days old They are viewed by the industry as a worthless by-product as they can’t produce milk and many are not suitable for beef production Some, however, are reared for cheap meat

We passed into a cavernous shed along a faecessoaked slatted floor All the cows were mothers who had recently given birth – beautiful, curious and gentle creatures despite their towering size Their chocolatebrown eyes watched us as we talked to them.

I found it heart-rending to see how being used as a milk machine takes its toll. Several had udders so large it distorted their ability to walk Having had their calves stolen from them, milk leaked out of the teats of some as there were no babies to drink it Their spines and pelvic bones protruded painfully as their bodies had started to waste away – a result of having been forced to produce increasingly large and unnatural quantities of milk.

The average annual milk yield per cow has risen from 4,100 litres in 1975 to 8,200 litres, an average daily output of 27 litres (48 pints!) Extraordinarily, they are milked throughout most of their nine-month pregnancies so there is little respite

Dairy producers perpetuate the myth that cows need us to milk them so we’re doing them a favour by drinking the excess they produce It’s a lie! It’s completely unnatural.

Wendy was visibly distressed but stuck with me as we went to find the missing calves. Hidden from view, they were little more than 20 feet from their bellowing mothers. One baby still had her umbilical cord attached – so young, so confused and still unsteady on her feet Isolated in a small metal pen, she suckled hard on our

Far left, top: calves separated from their mothers after birth Left: a trussed up dead calf was found in a bin Bottom left: cows with huge udders were leaking milk into their filthy stalls fingers, desperate for comfort I talked softly to her but what can you say to a baby who just wants her mum?

Earlier in the year, our investigations team had installed hidden cameras at the farm. They revealed extremely emaciated cows, distended udders so swollen with milk that it was leaking onto the filthy shed floors. Other cows had their hind legs shackled with chains called hobbles, which are common throughout the dairy industry Mostly they’re for cows who have experienced nerve damage from repeated calvings and do the splits on the wet floors as they cannot control their hind legs

In other hidden footage, I watched workers slap, shove and knee these abused mothers towards the milking parlour

What got to me the most was the emotional torment of a tiny, newborn calf who wasn’t feeding Rather than unite her with her mother, a worker straddled her and forced a tube down her throat Force feeding a recumbent calf can be fatal but still they went ahead.

Wendy and I left the calves with reluctance and went to check the office. We crossed a small patch of scrub littered with scrap and there, dumped in the open, was a full-grown cow. She’d been shot through the head and blood congealed on her forehead Her dead eyes stared at me and said everything about this industry. I very rarely cry but on this occasion

We made a promise to her that Viva! will do everything it can to help stop this appalling cruelty

In the office, we found what we were looking for –receipts that showed the farm supplies Freshways, “The UK’s largest independent processing dairy” Customers include Costa Coffee, Caffè Nero, Budgens, Iceland, Nisa, Londis and British Airways And, no surprise, the farm is Red Tractor assured!

We’d spent a long night inside that place and I felt angry walking away, my head spinning with ideas about how to respond and later, I struggled to sleep But now we’ve reported the farm for violating animal welfare regulations and Red Tractor had the audacity to reply that Home Farm “demonstrates the best of dairy farming.”

“Even though I had braced myself for a horror show, my heart sank when we walked into Home Farm; a dairy farm where there was no dignity in life for the cows and no dignity in death mothers cried for their calves, cows lay on concrete floors in cramped pens with full-to-bursting udders leaking milk – and for their final resting place there was a wheelie bin or a patch of mud. We should be hanging our heads in shame The light at the end of the tunnel for me is that at least I have Viva! to be proud of ”

Wendy Turner Webster, Viva! Patron

We obtained a powerful exclusive in The Independent, a digital news outlet that reaches about 800,000 people a day. And in true Viva! style, we organised two nationwide Days of Action against Costa Coffee, urging their customers to choose plant milks On January 28, Viva! supporters joined in actions across the nation and the public response was incredible! More actions will take place on March 11

Although some of what we found at Home Farm was extreme, much of it is tragically common practice on dairy farms across the UK Again, we showed that the Red Tractor so-called assurance scheme counts for nothing and that British consumers are being conned

More poignantly, all dairy farms rely on the sickening debasing of mothers – turning the wonder of pregnancy and birth into units of production. We will continue exposing dairy farms across the UK, and encourage people to eat kind.

Top: shot in the head, this cow was found abandoned on scrub land

Above: Juliet Gellatley and Wendy-Turner Webster comfort a newborn calf who suckles desperately on their fingers