Our latest UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION for Expired (Organic) campaign has been featured in the Mail Online, Somerset Live, The London Economic, Bristol Post and more.

When you hear terms like ‘award-winning’ and ‘organic’, it makes consumers believe that the company values the lives of the animals on their farm. Bath Soft Cheese, a dairy farm located in the heart of the Southwest, has claims to both of these terms, supplying the likes of Abel & Cole. But it has a secret that it does not want the public to see.

Watch our VIDEO and view our IMAGES.

During an extensive seven month investigation, Animal Justice Project obtained heart-wrenching, never-seen-before footage of the ‘high welfare’ organic dairy farm, Bath Soft Cheese, Gold winners at the ‘International Cheese and Dairy Awards’, 2021. The footage revealed that their calves were routinely delivered to a prolific calf dealer, Will Pollett. The reality uncovered in this investigation stands in stark contrast to the promises that Bath Soft Cheese make to consumers.

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The organic fallacy is one of smoke and mirrors and it is clear that cows on organic farms still face heartache, misery and suffering. Bath Soft Cheese are Milking It with their false claims!

The Organic Fallacy

Bath Soft Cheese owner, Hugh Padfield, boasts of the ‘high welfare’ standards on his four-generation, 200-cow farm, which is certified by Organic Farmers and Growers (OF&G) – a leading organic scheme approved by DEFRA. The farm has even been featured on the BBC. The reality for cows and calves on this farm appears to be a far cry from the wholesome image portrayed in their marketing.

Bath Soft Cheese cows are milked twice a day in a ‘herringbone’ parlour. They are treated like milking machines, with some cows being made to wait for over two hours on each occasion. That is up to FIVE HOURS of queueing every single day. For lame cows, that means hours of agony as they wait on the waterlogged, filthy concrete floor.

Cows who failed to enter the parlour swiftly were kicked, slapped, and hit with plastic pipes, regardless of whether they were lame. Even those who had recently given birth could not escape the violence; one worker repeatedly beat a cow in the udder with the pipe – she had given birth just 19 hours before. Others had their tails pulled and twisted.

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The cows were frightened of workers, flinching and backing off as they came near. Both physical and verbal abuse appeared to be ‘business as usual’ at Bath Soft Cheese.

“The lameness is most likely exacerbated by the long waiting times in the slurry filled concrete collecting yards and passages prior to milking. Even the so-called ‘high welfare’ farms will have lame cows, it is simply an inherent result of the systems we keep livestock in for the purposes of production.” – Molly Vasanthakumar, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery MRCVS

We are reaching out to Abel & Cole to demand that they drop Bath Soft Cheese as a supplier and to change their products to 100% plant-based, environmentally-responsible products. The abuse and inherent suffering that cows faced at this farm, and all dairies, cannot go unheard. Stockists must act immediately and disassociate themselves with Bath Soft Cheese!
For cows to produce milk, they must first give birth. As is the case with humans, a cow’s pregnancy lasts for nine months. Due to generations of selective breeding for high milk yields, pregnancy takes a huge toll on their bodies. Cows who were close to giving birth at Bath Soft Cheese struggled to stand-up and walk. Those cows considered ‘spent’ end up where all farmed cows ultimately go – the abattoir.

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The End of her Pregnancy is the Beginning of her Heartache

Cows form strong emotional bonds within minutes of birth, cherishing their moments together. With 200 cows at Bath Soft Cheese, there are a lot of calves born every year.

We followed the story of little brown calf 202549 born at the farm, whom we named ‘Button’. His story reveals the torment and distress that cows and calves face when they are separated so that people can consume dairy. At Bath Soft Cheese, as is standard on most organic dairies, cows are allowed to spend three days with their calves. Keeping a calf with the mother for that length of time – longer than the more traditional 1-2 days – is promoted as a ‘high welfare’ measure, yet studies show that the bond between mother and calf grows stronger over time, as would be expected, so the distress and anguish felt by both mother and calf may be accentuated.

The Story of Baby Calf, “Button”

From the moment that Button was born, his love for his mother was clear. Once he was steady on his feet, he ran around, playful and excited. His mother licked and groomed him, strengthening their relationship. After three days, the family was tragically separated. This is the heart-wrenching side of organic dairy that the industry does not want the public to see, including Bath Soft Cheese.

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Dragged by his neck and tail, Button was taken to a nearby shed where he was individually penned – a questionable practice, thought to impair the cognitive development of calves and stem natural social behaviours. Soon after the separation, his mother began crying out; appearing to look for her baby. She cried intensely throughout the day and night. The agony was drawn out as mother and baby could still hear each other from neighbouring sheds. Investigators filmed her in a restless state in an outside walkway that night, bellowing.

Mother and baby cried out to each other with obvious anguish and desperation that appeared to increase as time went on. Bath Soft Cheese’s own veterinarian stated that cows and calves “get no mental health or separation anxieties”, yet months of Animal Justice Project filming reveals this to be a false claim. Button cried for almost 40 hours post-separation.

Confused and helpless, he rammed his body into the pen bars, paced back and forth, and cried until his voice was hoarse. This is the painful reality of dairy, organic or not.

GRIEVING MOTHERS AND CRYING BABIES WERE RIDICULED BY WORKERS, EXPOSING ANOTHER SADISTIC SIDE OF DAIRY

Separated calves were put into individual pens similar in size to the now-banned veal crate. Unable to play, interact properly with others, run, jump, or butt, calves could not be calves. At Bath Soft Cheese’s public open day, calves were displayed to visitors in well-bedded pens, which were much larger than the 6×3 ft pens they were housed in during the course of our investigation. In fact, the very same calves were filmed back inside the tiny pens just four days after the open day ended.

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It would seem that the public is presented with a false image of the calves’ housing conditions at these open days. Even on standard days where Bath Soft Cheese’s farm is partly open, key areas including where the calves are kept, are closed off to the public.

Bath Soft Cheese’s Organic Fallacies are Deceiving Consumers

“Weaning calves is an inherent and cruel part of the dairy industry, and economically viable farms cannot feasibly avoid it. On this particular farm, calves are kept in individual small pens, with no contact to other animals other than through the bars. It is impossible to see how young, inquisitive animals are expected to display natural behaviours in those conditions.”
– Molly Vasanthakumar, Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery MRCVS

Calves paced, repeatedly stood up and sat down, and suckled at the bars. Their cries were ignored. They were mocked and even hit by workers. They were robbed of the comfort and reassurance they would naturally get from their mothers.

Female calves are housed in group pens and will be used as “next year’s milkers”. They are forced to endure the painful practice of ‘disbudding’ – the removal of their horn buds (often carried out with a hot iron). This procedure is said to cause chronic pain even when anaesthetic is used (as it was at Bath Soft Cheese) as the pain-relieving effects of the drugs are short-lived.

Calves struggled as their heads were rammed through bars to keep them still. One calf had her leg trapped between the bars of a pen during the procedure, and the staff made no attempt to free it, callously letting the animal fall to the ground instead. Veterinarian, Dr Molly Vasanthakumar, states, “there is evidence to suggest that calves experience ongoing pain up to three weeks after disbudding, raising serious welfare concerns about this commonly used procedure.”

Calf slaughter, filmed by Animal Justice Project, represents a side of the dairy industry that is seldom seen by the public, yet it occurs on a staggering scale. In 2020, almost 65,000 male dairy calves less than one month old were killed inside British slaughterhouses.

Calf dealers such as Will Pollett, are profiting from dairy’s ‘waste products’, regularly taking calves en masse to the abattoir so they can be killed for meat. Tiny calves, as young as ten days old, were loaded onto a trailer and sent to Pollett’s farm where they were filmed being left on a double-decker transporter overnight. Why is award-winning Bath Soft Cheese sending calves to a known calf killer?

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Bath Soft Cheese will have had movement restrictions due to the Tuberculosis (Tb) status of the herd during our filming but Tb isn’t an automatic death sentence, especially for young calves. The choice of whether to send animals to slaughter would lay with Bath Soft Cheese. Calves too young to be tested can be kept on farm until restrictions are lifted, or be reared at an Approved Finishing Unit (AFU). Bath Soft Cheese claims all its calves are reared, and none are killed before 12 months old.

After leaving Pollett’s farm, around 100 other calves were picked up from a second location, Whistledown farm. We proceeded to film inside Whistledown farm, which revealed crowded pens, starving calves and physical abuse.

Calves at Whistledown farm were left for over 19 hours without access to food and water. Others were slapped and dragged by their heads and tails. Leaving Whistledown farm, Pollett headed to F Drury & Sons slaughterhouse in Swindon. By the time they arrived at the abattoir, some of the calves had gone without food or water for over 22 hours. Animals are often starved in the hours before slaughter.

This is the organic truth, yet the ‘organic’ label is still associated with higher welfare standards. Bath Soft Cheese are deceiving consumers and are well and truly … MILKING IT!

Calves at Whistledown farm were left for over 19 hours without access to food and water. Others were slapped and dragged by their heads and tails. Leaving Whistledown farm, Pollett headed to F Drury & Sons slaughterhouse in Swindon. By the time they arrived at the abattoir, some of the calves had gone without food or water for over 22 hours. Animals are often starved in the hours before slaughter.

This is the organic truth, yet the ‘organic’ label is still associated with higher welfare standards. Bath Soft Cheese are deceiving consumers and are well and truly …

Our investigation serves as a stark reminder that cows and calves suffer a great amount of distress and psychological torment, whether or not the farm is organic. Ultimately, exploiting cows is never acceptable and choosing a ‘high welfare’ or ‘organic’ option in the supermarket will not end the suffering or killing. We urge consumers to ditch dairy and choose more compassionate plant-based alternatives instead.

Our fight against the needless dairy industry continues and, with your support, we can create impactful change for cows and calves. Thank you for helping us expose the cruel realities behind the dairy industry.

As always,

For the animals.

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