Throughout the past 18 months Surge have had hidden cameras
placed in dairy farms around the UK.
What we have documented, has shocked us.
The dairy industry is painted as a wholesome industry
where the animals are treated with care and compassion.
Grazing dairy cows and adverts perpetuating these ideas
reinforce the notion that animals don't suffer for dairy products.
However the footage that we have acquired tells a very different story -
than the one the industry tells us.
Animals being systematically exploited and abused,
farmers showing contempt towards the animals,
violently beating them and showing a complete disregard for their life.
What you're about to see is objective,
it is the reality and it is the truth.
Cows are mammals, which means they only produce milk to feed their children.
Consequently dairy cows are forcibly impregnated every year
to ensure they're continuously producing milk
the farmer can sell for profits.
This is done by a farmer or a vet,
restraining the cow and forcing his arm inside the anus of the cow,
holding her cervix through the lining of the anus and enforcing a syringe through the cow's vagina
and injecting bull semen inside her cervix.
When the cow gives birth, her baby is taken away from her almost immediately.
Mother cows form close relationships with their children
with natural herds being both matriarchal and familial.
Consequently, the separation of the calves from their mother
causes them both huge amounts of suffering and distress.
We documented farmers dragging, kicking and throwing newborn calves.
On this farm, the calves are tossed into the front loader of a tractor, unable to stand,
their mothers desperately trying to help.
On dairy farms, calves are separated from their mothers and have no opportunity to feel maternal love
or even to feed naturally.
On this farm, the calves are instead pinned down and force-fed formula by the farmer.
Calves that don't willingly accept the force feeding are slapped and thrown around like they are worthless.
They are only babies.
This farmer is tagging the ear of this calf who has only just been born.
The separated calf calls out to their mother.
Male calves are of no use to dairy industry.
So every year in the UK, 90,000 male dairy cows are shot and discarded soon after birth.
Simply because they are not deemed profitable enough by the farmers.
The other males we'll either be sold on and raised for beef or they'll be killed for veal.
The female calves are normally placed in solitary confinement pens
where they can legally be kept for up to eight weeks.
The mother cows are then milked by being herded into the milking parlors.
This can happen up to three times a day.
Cows who do not willingly walk to be milked are beaten, punched and abused until they comply with the farmers.
This abuse was documented at every dairy farm that we visited.
Death can be found everywhere on dairy farms.
With dairy calves left to rot on the ground.
Mother cows who are seen as no longer being useful to the farmer are also often shot on the farm.
Sometimes being left to decompose.
Swearing, shouting and verbal abuse was also documented
as being commonplace across the dairy farms that we investigated.
Cows are sensitive animals who form close bonds and are easily scared.
What we see in this footage does not represent Isolated cases or bad apples.
This footage represents the systematic and ubiquitous nature of the violence that takes place on animal farms.
Even those actions that are legally condoned still cause suffering.
Dairy products come from violence, but we have the power to make it stop.
Please leave dairy off your plate.
Together we can make the violence end.
Thank you for watching.