Why is the RSPCA supporting factory farming?

UNCOVERING THE TRUTH

Content warning: This video contains footage of newborn calves being hit, kicked, thrown and subjected to painful mutilations.

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For the first time in UK history, we filmed an M&S inspection at an award-winning, RSPCA Assured dairy farm in Gloucestershire.

This is what it missed.

Two people in a farm or livestock facility, near calf pens and calves lying on hay. One person is holding a clipboard and the other has their hands in their pockets.

Over 3 days, we recorded more than 700 incidents of physical and verbal abuse. Newborn calves were kicked, hit, thrown, sworn at, force-fed and left hungry – for as much as 19 hours.

On the day of the inspection, workers already knew an assessor was coming, with one worker saying:

“We’ve got an M&S inspection today… This could really look bad.”

Our cameras caught their clean-up operation, with workers hastily throwing more straw into pens and removing a dead calf less than 3 hours before the assessor arrived.

The inspection in this shed lasted just 10 minutes. No pens were entered. No calves were physically examined. Less than a minute after the inspector left, the abuse resumed.

This farm supplies M&S and Müller, it’s won industry awards for being ‘high welfare’, its owners were finalists for ‘dairy farmer of the year’, and it was certified by the UK’s most trusted animal charity – the RSPCA.

If this is the best – what do the rest look like?

A person with their face pixelated bending over to strike a calf at a farm, with a cow in the foreground and a cart in the background.
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Over 170 undercover investigations

into RSPCA Assured farms and slaughterhouses have exposed widespread abuse, cruelty and neglect.

Underwater photo of a rainbow trout with a hook in their mouth, swimming among other fish in greenish water.
A dead pig lying on their side on a bed of straw inside a barn or pen.
Close-up of a cow with a black and white face, holding mud or dirt on their nose, standing behind a metal fence in a muddy farmyard.
A chicken hanging upside down on a processing line in a slaughterhouse.

If RSPCA Assured is the best, what do the rest look like?

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WE’RE ASKING THE RSPCA TO:

Stop certifying factory farming

End RSPCA Assurance of factory farms.

Help end factory farming

Campaign to end factory farming by 2040.

Expose the truth

End misleading RSPCA Assured advertising.

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We believe the RSPCA should stand For All Animals

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    Chris Packham

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    Joanna Lumley

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    Moby

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    Jerome Flynn

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    Caroline Lucas

Close-up of a pig's face and snout, with pink skin and some dirt.

The RSPCA’s legacy

For over 200 years, the RSPCA has helped end cruelty that society once accepted as normal – like dog fighting, wild animals in circuses and live exports.

They didn’t make cruelty ‘kinder’. They ended it.

But today, over 85%‍ of farmed animals in the UK are trapped in factory farms. And many are certified by the RSPCA.

The RSPCA exists to prevent cruelty to all animals. But how can they prevent cruelty while putting their name to it?

The RSPCA has boldly led the way before. We know they can do it again.

We’re asking them to help end factory farming for good.

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Close-up of a factory farmed chicken's head, showing their comb, eye, and beak, with feathers and body partially visible.

Britain is ready

The majority of the British public wants factory farming banned.

So why is the RSPCA supporting an industry the public opposes?

Factory farming harms everyone – the billions of animals trapped in this system, farmers locked into unsustainable contracts, neighbouring wildlife, and local communities affected by water and air pollution. The only one who benefits is the multi-billion-pound factory farming industry.

A different future is possible. But we need the RSPCA to boldly lead the way.

Together, we can be the generation that ends factory farming for good.

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We’re asking the RSPCA to stand for all animals - and stand against factory farming

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