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During a two-month investigation, grassroots animal rights organization Surge documented cows being kicked, punched, and beaten with sticks at Wigboro Wick Farm in Essex, England.
Surge’s investigation comes less than a month after Mercy For Animals’ latest investigation involving cows—at a municipal slaughterhouse in Mexico—which exposed cows cut open and bleeding out while still able to feel pain and brutally kicked, dragged, and stepped on by workers.
Surge says investigators placed hidden cameras around the Essex farm, providing a look into the company’s operations. Footage shows workers punching, kicking, and swearing at cows; beating them in the face with sticks; and twisting their tails to move them along for milking. In one disturbing clip, a cow falls over struggling to escape and is repeatedly kicked while lying helplessly on the ground.
Other footage suggests cows were “sexually abused,” reports the Independent. An investigator explained:
Some of the most disturbing footage shows one worker touching two cows in intimate areas on two different occasions. The worker appears to be moving his hand up and down in a way that would suggest masturbation.
The hidden cameras also recorded a heartbreaking but typical practice at dairy farms: stealing calves from their mothers shortly after birth. In the video, a distraught cow chases after a worker herding her newborn calf away. And we see the barren hutches where calves are isolated after this forced separation. Footage also shows dead calves left to rot in the open, discarded like worthless trash.
Time and again, investigations into facilities like this have documented the abuse cows suffer for milk, cheese, and other dairy products. A Mercy For Animals investigation at Winchester Dairy in New Mexico exposed workers punching, kicking, and whipping cows with chains and metal wires. And an investigation into the United States’ largest organic dairy farm this year revealed cows stabbed with screwdrivers, kicked, and dragged when they were too weak to stand.
We can oppose this cruelty by choosing plant-based milk, ice cream, cheese, and other products.
You can help make a difference for farmed animals by supporting Mercy For Animals’ vital work. All gifts received by December 31 will be MATCHED!