Consumers will be shown for the first time the bloody secrets held by one of the nation's favorite confectionary brands – Cadbury. During a three month undercover investigation of dairy farms who supply the company with milk by animal group Viva!, baby male calves are shown being torn from their mothers and callously shot. This is because their milk is needed for the 250 million bars of Dairy Milk Cadbury produces every year – and they are branded a useless by-product by the industry as they can't give birth and produce milk. On a Cadbury's farm near Bristol, a calf bellows for his mother, before being herded into the back of a trailer, to stand on top of bodies of other dead cows and calves. A man from the Beaufort Hunt (of which Prince Charles is a member), shoots him with a pistol before he collapses on top other carcasses. His body will be fed to hounds. The footage also shows huge udders producing 39 liters a day, cows giving birth where a ‘jack' is used to pull the calf out, the separation of mother and calf and the subsequent calling of both, illness and calves in pens awaiting their fate. Some dairy farms, producing for Cadbury don't shoot male calves but send them to a collection center where they are bought into the veal industry or become pet food; or poor quality meat products. Figures from DairyCo gained through a freedom of information request by Viva! show an estimated 100,000 bull calves are ‘disposed of on farm/died shortly after birth'. This information would shock most consumers, Viva! believe. Campaigner, Kat Affleck says: “Our investigation has exposed for the first time the life of a Cadbury dairy cow: the trauma of birth, over producing and pendulous udders and the loneliness and confusion of separated calves calling for mothers they will never see again. This is not just Cadbury – but the dairy industry in general. I strongly urge anyone wanting to eat compassionately to watch the footage and see the reality of dairy production in the UK”. “Consumers have a right to know the brutal truth that Cadbury's would rather keep quiet, how all dairy products are produced. The cruel parental separation and shooting of thousands of male dairy calves hardly fits in with their picturesque pastoral image. And sadly virtually all milk, in any dairy product, has similar provenance. The fate of the Cadbury calves is replicated across the entire industry. The cruelty is inherent to the industry – anyone disagreeing with it can find out how to be dairy free on our website.” VIVA! UK
