We bring you our BREAKING INVESTIGATION into the UK calf trade. Animal Justice Project has caught on camera for the first time in the UK, the violent abuse of calves at a dealers yard and the tragic slaughter of male dairy calves inside the slaughterhouse. As featured in the Daily Mail, this is our BIGGEST investigation to date.

CALVES KICKED, THROWN, STARVED & KILLED FOR DAIRY

Shockingly, last year, 65,000 male calves, who were less than one month old, were mercilessly killed in slaughterhouses. This is more than the number of calves callously shot on farms; around 60,000, according to the latest industry figures. Most of these tiny, vulnerable calves arrived at the slaughterhouse from dealers.

The shooting of male calves on dairy farms was termed ‘dairy’s dirty secret’ but as the industry is changing and they are trying to improve their public image…This is dairy’s NEW dirty secret!

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Animal Justice Project filmed cruel abuse at one of these dealers, Oaklands Livestock Centre, and the slaughter of male calves inside G. & G.B. Hewitt slaughterhouse. Our investigation reveals horrors over a five-month period.

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Many supermarkets, dairy companies and assurance schemes have been implementing policies to prohibit the “routine euthanasia of healthy calves” – the shooting of male calves on farms – but some policies have loopholes and calves will not always be protected.  Some ‘protect’ calves for up to just eight weeks and others allow the onward sale of calves at markets, exposing them to a violent fate inside a slaughterhouse!

Many will enter the integrated rearing system, where they will be grimly killed for their flesh from 12 months old. However, thousands of the smallest and most fragile calves will still be deemed unsuitable and unprofitable.

Could these policies in fact INCREASE the number of calves being sent to markets and slaughterhouses?

‘Slaughter calves’ are bought by dealers from markets and dairies. Dealers are accountable for over half of all calves entering slaughterhouses, where only violence awaits them.

We filmed calves being picked up from dairy farms, supplying Sainsbury’s via milk processor, Müller. They were collected by Oaklands Livestock Centre, owned by renowned calf dealer Derek Whittall. Whittall uses both Halls Markets in Shrewsbury and Barbers Market in Market Drayton to trade calves. Markets put a price on life, reducing innocent babies to mere objects. Corralled into cramped pens, this loud, hostile environment leaves calves with nowhere to hide.

Oaklands Livestock Centre, Shropshire, is a busy hub for calves. Centres like these are an integral part of the UK calf trade and they facilitate the exploitation of babies.

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Our footage revealed heart-breaking abuse

Arriving at the centre, calves were violently kicked and pushed down trailer ramps; some were thrown down, landing on their backs. Others were dragged by their delicate tails and ears. Physical and verbal abuse was commonplace during our filming. Gates were rammed into the babies, trapping their fragile legs. Plastic bags were waved around to scare the already distressed calves.

With no mothers to protect them, these calves were defenceless against the culture of abuse at Oaklands. Their situation was dire.

Unweaned calves left to starve

The violence, mistreatment and abuse at Oaklands blatantly breached legislation. Calves who are less than four weeks old must be fed two or more times in 24 hours. We filmed multiple groups of calves going without feeds for as long as 21 hours and others were fed only once in 29 hours. Unweaned calves had no access to water.

Young calves paced and cried out as they waited many hours to be fed. When they were finally offered milk, no compassion was shown to them. Workers showed no patience in teaching calves how to drink from the feeders. One was kicked in the face by an aggravated worker. Transported miles from their mothers and punished for not understanding the artificial feeder, these harrowing scenes prove that the dairy industry has no compassion for vulnerable babies.

“These incidents are highly distressing to watch, and not only do they breach transport and welfare legislation, they demonstrate a total lack of compassion and cause unnecessary pain, fear and suffering to the individual animals.” – Molly Vasanthakumar Batchelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery MRCVS

Oaklands takes many calves directly to be tragically slaughtered. This is the heartbreaking, lesser-known part of the calf trade. Oaklands workers took calves to G. & G.B. Hewitt slaughterhouse in Chester, which they used to kill calves. This slaughterhouse profited from the gruesome slaughter of tiny babies.

Babies were left cold and alone in the slaughterhouse, where many innocent calves had met a premature death before them. Derek Whittall of Oaklands Livestock Centre was caught on camera leaving unweaned calves, as young as nine days old, in the slaughterhouse lairage overnight during winter.

For the first time in the UK, we caught on camera the tragic and violent killing of vulnerable, male calves inside a slaughterhouse.

We saw calves who were mercilessly stunned with a captive bolt gun before being strung up by their back legs and having their throats slit open to be ‘bled out’. The workers, desensitised to this horrific violence, took no hesitation in taking the lives of these calves. Curious, innocent babies were reduced to a mere profit-making product, hanging upside down and bleeding onto the slaughterhouse floor.

Their flesh will be sold for human consumption and their skin for leather.

Hewitt’s captive bolt gun failed four times to stun a calf. Workers blasted music and shouted loudly whilst they were next to young calves in the stun room. Frail, tiny babies, faced some of the worst parts of the industry.

“[Calves] are exposed to conditions which cause them stress, pain and inevitable suffering. The cases seen in this investigation are not isolated to just one slaughterhouse or just one intensive farm, but are the reality of the cruelty that underlies the whole livestock industry.” – Molly Vasanthakumar, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery MRCVS

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Whether they are killed inside a slaughterhouse or enter the integrated rearing and fattening system…DAIRY STILL KILLS!

The footage serves as a stark reminder that the dairy industry has no ethical solution for unprofitable male calves. Ultimately, the solution to their problem lies with the consumer, and we urge them to ditch dairy and choose instead, more compassionate plant-based alternatives.

Our fight against the cruel and needless calf trade continues and with your support, we can create effective change for calves. You can give today to fund our vital undercover investigations!

As always,

For the animals.

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