Super-dairy opponents defend Guantanamo stunt
Animal welfare campaigners have defended their tactics after wearing Guantanamo-style jumpsuits to protest against plans to establish an 8100-cow dairy farm in the UK.
Dozens of protestors donned orange costumes and cow masks outside the Houses of Parliament and DEFRA offices in Westminster last week before running through the streets of central London.
Organised by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), the stunt coincided with the launch of a Not in My Cuppa campaign against proposals by Nocton Dairies to set up Europe’s biggest dairy herd in rural Lincolnshire.
The WSPA claims it has evidence of “shocking” animal welfare conditions in similar “super-dairies” in the USA. But critics have accused the group of indulging in emotional arguments rather than relying on the facts.
The alleged mistreatment of detainees issued with orange jumpsuits at the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp for prisoners from Afghanistan and in Iraq has long been a source of international controversy.
WSPA spokeswoman Katharine Mansell defended the decision to wear similar orange jumpsuits in an animal welfare demonstration. Two-thirds of consumers would refuse to drink milk if they knew it came from a super dairy, she said.
“This was not a classic protest, but more a playful awareness-raising stunt to launch our campaign. We knew that if we were to reach consumers, we would have to use an arresting and simple concept.”
WSPA campaigners would step up their consumer awareness work over the coming months, said Ms Mansell. Setting up and 8100-cow dairy herd was not in the interests of consumers, smaller farmers or the animals themselves, she added.
But critics disagree. Speaking at this week’s Dairy Event in Birmingham, Amanda Ball, head of communications for DairyCo, said consumers were largely indifferent when it came to the issue of big dairy farms.
“There has been a lot of highly emotive language pushed out through campaign groups, some of which is not always factually correct. It is important to differentiate between genuine consumer concerns and those of the pressure groups.”
A recent survey by DairyCo found that more than half of all consumers had no fixed opinion on large-scale dairying. “What was of real concern to the consumer was the health and welfare of cows rather than the scale of the farm itself.”
Nocton Dairies declined to comment.