Slaughter

For all of her hard work and suffering, the dairy cow is sent to the slaughterhouse as soon as her milk yield drops. Modern dairy farms are about maximising profit and minimising overheads, which according to Stuart Bacon – Britain’s Dairy Farmer of the Future 2005 – is achieved by “culling out some of the poorer performers” (31). These worn out cows endure a gruelling journey to market where they are sold to fattening farms, before eventually being sent to the slaughterhouse – ending up in ‘low quality’ beef products like pies, burgers, soups and baby food.

For details on cattle slaughter methods in the UK, please see Viva!’s Sentenced to Death report.