LONDON: A British cow farm said it will cut the amount of animals kept indoors at a facility near Lincoln. According to Nocton, the 22-acre facility had planned to keep over 8,000 animals inside to produce 220,000 liters of milk daily. Local residents and animal rights campaigners forced the company to withdraw the plans in April after criticizing the factory over its animal welfare. Nocton Dairies Limited said it will still build the facility, but with a smaller number of animals kept. It is unclear how many animals will be housed in the facility. Activists and residents joined forces to push the company to change its practices. The facility was being built to operate similar to super dairies in the United States, but smaller farmers would have been at risk, as well as the welfare of the thousands of animals forced to live their lives inside. Nocton Dairies director Peter Willes told BBC Radio 4′s Farming Today they had altered the plans to give the animals more space and outdoor access. “We do not feel there is a nutritional benefit for the cows to go outside. But we have listened to the concerns of welfare groups, the RSPCA and the public of what they feel is better for the dairy cows,” he said. “If they feel happier with cows allowed to go outside we are going to offer our cows outside space.” Jordan Lewis, an animal rights campaigner in the London who had made a number of visits to the area, told Bikya Masr that despite the company's plans to halve the amount of cows in the facility and give them “some outside area” he was opposed to the entire idea. “People need to understand what is going on with these super dairies,” he began. “It is horrific for the animals and on top of that, dairy products are not the healthiest things to be consuming, so it is a double-edged sword that needs to be re-examined.” Nocton Dairies said it would reveal further details about its revised proposals next week with plans submitted to North Kesteven District Council sometime after that. Factory farming has recently come under greater attack from activists, who exposed a number of atrocities across Britain in the past few months. Lewis says that the UK must “come to terms with how it treats its animals and the food that it consumes. We are seeing a lot of changes in diet these past few years and hopefully it will mean more humane ideas for how animals persist in our country.” BM
