Ed Winters: Guy Smith travels and gives talks about animal welfare, whilst on his farm animals are being touched in intimate areas in a non-legal manner, punched, trapped in solitary confinement pens and verbally abused.
JANE DALTON: ‘Cows were violently kicked, punched and sexually abused at a farm linked to the NFU’s deputy president, investigators have found. Footage from hidden cameras revealed a string of cases in which the animals were attacked. Researchers visiting the site also photographed dead calves left to rot outside. Workers at the Essex farm, owned by a company of which Guy Smith is director, are seen in the video kicking, punching and hitting dairy cows with sticks. One worker also appears to touch the animals in an “intimate area” on two different occasions, the witness claimed.
“Some of the most disturbing footage shows one worker touching two cows in intimate areas on two different occasions,” the investigator said. “The worker appears to be moving his hand up and down in a way that would suggest masturbation.” At other times, employees carried out “excessive tail twisting” – causing pain – shouted and swore at the animals…
The investigation was triggered when a member of the public spotted the decomposing body of a calf and raised the alarm. Without knowing the link to Mr Smith, investigators say, they placed hidden cameras throughout the farm at St Osyth, near Clacton, and visited several times over two months earlier this year. They sent their findings to the Surge animal protection group, which campaigns against the dairy industry.
Ed Winters, co-director of Surge, said members were shocked by the brutality documented on the farm. “Guy Smith travels and gives talks about animal welfare, whilst on his farm animals are being touched in intimate areas in a non-legal manner, punched, trapped in solitary confinement pens and verbally abused,” he said. “This farm was just one of eight UK dairy farms featured in our larger Dismantle Dairy campaign, and on all eight dairy farms we found suffering and abuse that is hidden from the public.” Surge, which reported the findings to the Animal and Plant Health Authority and the RSPCA, said there were numerous instances of violence or abuse’. SOURCE…
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