On Saturday 26 June 2021, between 11-3pm, Animal Justice Project [1] and local activists three Leicester-based animal rights groups - ‘Spiritually Vegan’, ‘Leicester Animal Rights’ and ‘Leicestershire Animal Save’ [2] will host a special ‘Dairy Still Kills’ outreach event [3] in Leicester City Centre.

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The focus of this event will be to raise awareness amongst the public about the horrors of the modern dairy industry. A huge 20 foot banner will also be dropped at various locations around the city centre. In particular, we shall be sharing information provided to Animal Justice Project by the UK government that, despite many retailers and major supermarkets now banning the shooting of day-old male (‘bull’) calves on-farm, a staggering 65,000 male calves under a month old were killed in slaughterhouses last year [4]. This is more than the last publicly-available figures for male calves shot on farms and reveals that ‘Dairy Still Kills’, despite the changes in supermarket policies.  Whilst the shooting of male calves at a day or two old has been known as the dairy industry’s “dirty secret” [5], the slaughter calves, Animal Justice Project claims, are the industry’s new dirty secret.

The groups will share details about Animal Justice Project’s recent investigation [6], featured in the Daily Mail [7] and other papers, which brought this staggering number to light - they filmed for five months at a calf dealer in Shropshire and associated slaughterhouse, G & Gb Hewitt in Chester where the filmed the killing of tiny calves as young as nine days old.

At the dealer’s yard – which collects unwanted male calves from Sainbsurys and Muller dairy farms and livestock markets such as Barber’s Mart in Market Drayton – unweaned calves were subjected to abuse from workers – they were kicked, hit with sticks, brutally thrown down trailer ramps, whipped with clothing, and dragged by ears and tails. The tiny calves were not fed for up to 21 hours and no water was provided at all. This is a potential breach of The Welfare of Farmed Animals 2007 which states "all calves must be provided with a sufficient quantity of fresh drinking water each day" and "all calves must be fed at least twice a day" [8]. At Hewitt slaughterhouse, the dealer left calves overnight in the drafty, cold and damp lairage before they were killed in the morning. Another breach of legislation, this time UK slaughter legislation, Welfare of Animals at Time of Killing (WATOK) 2015, which states unweaned calves must be killed immediately [9].

Dina Aherne, from Spiritually Vegan, states: “Whilst people continue to consume dairy, this suffering will continue. Our outreach event will share with the public all the other kinder plant based food options that we have available and in abundance in supermarkets. I’m looking forward to dropping the ‘Dairy Still Kills banner at Belgrave Road which is home to many South Asians. Some of which have a sacred connection to the cow.”

Ayrton Cooper, from Animal Justice Project, states: “Animal Justice Project is coming to Leicester to raise awareness on the tragic death of 65,000 male calves who are brutally killed each year because they are deemed ‘waste products’ by the dairy industry. Despite supermarket policies banning the shooting of male calves, thousands are transported to marts and ultimately the slaughterhouse each year, at just a few days. The public must be made aware that Dairy Still Kills”.

CONTACT

Dina Aherne, Spokesperson, Spiritually Vegan
E: spirituallyvegan1@gmail.com
T: +44 (0)7989 500 338

Ayrton Cooper, Spokesperson, Animal Justice Project
E: ayrton@animaljusticeproject.com
T: +44 (0) 7596 897 656

REFERENCES

[1] www.animaljusticeproject.com
[2] www.thesavemovement.org
[3] www.facebook.com/events/189731619725987
[4] Rural Payments Agency (RPA) Freedom of Information request. 14 January 2021 (available upon request)
[5] www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/10/the-end-of-dairys-dirty-secret-farms-have-a-year-to-stop-killing-male-calves
[6] https://expiredcampaign.org/dairystillkills/
[7] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9467121/Farm-workers-punch-kick-hurl-distressed-young-calves-shocking-undercover-footage.html
[8] www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2007/2078/contents/made
[9] www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1782/contents/made

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