The Times reports on a disturbing case of the abuse of cows at a UK farm. The farm has been named as Berryfields Farm near Daventry, Northamptonshire. The cows were allegedly beaten with pipes, kicked and had their tails twisted. Some were lame and workers noticed the poor condition of the animals.
John Bell, the owner of Berryfields Farm said that the cows concerned belonged to a cattle dealer who was renting a parcel of land on his farm. He is blaming this person and his staff, for the abuse. He has not been named. He has banned the dealer and workforce from the farm and is taking care of the cows himself. Mr Bell is disturbed by the reports and one report is in today’s The Times newspaper (the source of this post).
The farm-approval scheme, Red Tractor, has suspended the farm from their scheme after finding several breaches of its standards. As mentioned in the title, Tesco and Lidl have banned beef from Berryfields Farm.
A business called Foyle Food Group supply JD Wetherspoon, the pub chain. A spokesperson for the pub chain said that they believe that Foyles had stopped using the farm last week when the allegations were confirmed.
Berryfields supplies 4,000 cattle a year for slaughter under normal conditions. I suspect that this ban will reduce their output. It appears that Berryfields Farm have temporarily removed their Facebook page as this controversy has exploded in their faces.
