NEWS
by Andrew Livingston
Is Hardy’s ‘Vale of Little Dairies’ a place of brutality? Since the BBC’s Panorama episode investigating dairy farms in the UK was released, the debate has raged on between animal rights groups and those in the agriculture sector, says Andrew Livingston The farming community is strongly opinionated from one farm in Wales. The staff on the farm are that the episode ‘A Cow’s Life: The true cost of seen kicking cows whilst down, hitting them in milk’ (click the preview image below to view the the face with shovels and moving them across the programme on iPlayer) does not give a balanced farm by lifting them on their hip pins. view or fairly depict what farms are really Despite the horrific “...staff on the farm like in the UK. footage, what has Vegan animal rights activists, however, are seen kicking cows infuriated farmers is have stated that the programme has whilst down, hitting what they see as a lack of shone a light on the true living conditions balance. them in the face with “I thought it wasn’t of the cows that produce the milk that shovels and moving good, it didn’t show our fills our shops and supermarkets. Both sides of the argument have only them across the farm industry and the dairy been able to agree on one thing - that the by lifting them on their industry in a good light.” treatment of the cows and calves shown said James Cossins, NFU hip pins” in the programme is barbaric. representative for dairy farmers in Dorset. Lack of balance With a 300 cow dairy and arable farm of his own, The hour-long show released on Valentine’s Day Cossins is adamant that scenes like these are not predominantly shares hidden camera footage the norm. He told the BV: “If that is commonplace then... well, there’s no way that I want to be part of the industry if that’s the way people treat animals.” A vegan view Some animal rights groups agree that this isn’t the norm. Francine Jordan, an employee at The Vegan Society and host of The Vegan Pod, holds such notions. She states: “Fortunately, the extreme animal 6