The animal protection charity Open Cages commissioned a poll, which aimed to determine how UK shoppers balance animal welfare with affordable food.

Nearly 80% of Brits strongly oppose factory farming methods which cause animals to experience pain and suffering in a bid to produce cheaper food.

The data comes from a poll by YouGov, which was commissioned by animal protection charity Open Cages in December 2021.

It was conducted to determine how Brits balance concern for animal welfare along with desire for affordable food.

Respondents were presented with typical examples of factory farming practices used under the pretext of producing cheaper food.  These included breeding chickens to grow 400% faster than normal and keeping large volumes of animals inside large, crowded facilities for their entire lives.

An overwhelming majority of the respondents (78%) stated that they “strongly oppose” the use of cruel farming practices to produce cheap food.

Open Cages CEO Connor Jackson commented: “Behind the scenes, there’s a common attitude of seeing consumers as too cheap to support a move to higher standards.

”This poll suggests that the vast majority of British consumers aren’t interested in such a trade off: they don’t want cruelty to be the price.”

“It blows this outdated attitude out of the water.”

Reality of ‘high welfare’ British farms

Dozens of undercover investigations published in recent years have exposed the true plight of animals in these so-called ‘high welfare’ British farms claimed by big retailers and industry schemes like Red Tractor.

Over 70% of farm animals in the UK are kept in intensive facilities and forced to live in extremely overcrowded cages under extreme stress and abject cruelty.

Jackson added that these animals then end up on supermarket shelves marked ‘welfare assured’, which further distances consumers from making truly informed choices.

BBC Panorama: A Cow’s Life: The True Cost Of Milk?

The poll findings come at a time when BBC’s 30-minute documentary called A Cow’s Life: The True Cost Of Milk? has exposed the dark side of the dairy industry.

 The hard-hitting documentary spotlighted numerous distressing instances of animal abuse on a ‘high-welfare’, Red Tractor-approved dairy farm in Wales.

An Animal Equality investigator went undercover at Madox Farm in late 2021. The farm supplies cow’s milk to Freshways, the UK’s largest independent dairy processor and wholesaler.

The company supplies cow’s milk to a number of companies, including Morrisons, Costa Coffee, British Airways, Budgens, Londis, and P&O Cruises

The footage revealed workers kicking and punching an injured cow, with another video showing a worker forcefully pulling on the cow’s tail.

The BBC Panorama program also revealed how newborn calves are separated from their mother just hours after birth.

The documentary has taken the social media by storm with tens of thousands expressing their disbelief at the industry’s treatment of animals. 

 #GoVegan began trending on Twitter – alongside #Panorama and #ACowsLife – just hours after the program aired.

“I had to turn #acowslife off. It was too distressing. What is wrong with people that they can be so cruel to defenceless animals? How can humans be so cold and brutal. #Panorama,” one user tweeted.

“Feel like a lot of people who watched #Panorama tonight might finally understand why vegans are vegan,” another added.

Downton Abbey actor Peter Egan also weighed in with this thoughts: “Just watched #ACowsLife the true cost of milk on #panorama anyone who wants to understand why the dairy industry is disgusting, inhumane & careless should watch it.”

• Read: ‘Distressing’ footage reveals ‘severe animal suffering’ on chicken farms supplying Tesco, Ocado and others

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Mohsina Dodhiya

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