Workers kicked cows in the face, and repeatedly punched and slapped them at an award-winning Crown Estate dairy that supplies Tesco and dairy giant Muller, footage reveals.
One man appeared to stub out a cigarette on an animal’s face, while others were filmed prodding cows with sharp goads.
Secret cameras at Albyns Farm, near Loughton, Essex, also showed workers kicking cows in their legs, backsides, underbellies and udder areas, as well as hitting them in their udders and bottoms.
At other times farm staff chased the animals or twisted their tails, apparently to cause pain to force them to move.
One clip showed a worker kicking a cow in the jaw four times.
The hidden cameras, set up by animal activist and filmmaker Joey Carbstrong, also captured men yelling at the animals apparently to try to intimidate them into moving.
In an artificial-insemination rack, cows were seen panicking as they frantically tried to free their heads which were restrained between bars at the neck.
Several staff were sacked after The Independent showed the footage to the dairy bosses and to Muller, which suspended the farm.
Owners of the farm, which has around 700 dairy cows and is on Crown Estate land, said they were launching an independent investigation and were determined such scenes would not happen again.
Albyns Farm, which has previously won farming awards, is a member of the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group, and sells 40 per cent of its milk to yoghurt giant Müller.
An animal-welfare expert who analysed the footage, filmed in both 2024 and this year, wrote in a report on the video clips that the cows would have had “increased levels of fear, distress, and pain from injury (or risk of injury)” and “avoidable and unnecessary increased levels of distress and discomfort”.
Jenny Mace, a visiting scholar at the University of St Andrews, said excessive use of force was commonplace.
She said one worker gratuitously burnt a cow’s face with a cigarette; another worker lit a cigarette as he casually kicked a cow.
Smoking was hazardous in a workplace, she said, while there was “a general uncaring/intimidating attitude”.
Most cows filmed had distended udders; the videos show that at times they slipped on floors while being forced to move. They are also seen flinching or running in fright as they were yelled at or were whacked with cloths.
“Indicators of pain and/or distress are also evident in the footage… including flinching, running through fear, bellowing, leg kicks, and escape attempts,” Ms Mace wrote.
A cow unable to stand was lifted with a tractor and hoist, she said, and calves were routinely dragged by one leg from their mothers shortly after birth, a practice widely considered to cause distress to both.
She counted at least 600 instances of workers “inflicting avoidable pain and distress”.
Cows’ tails, densely packed with nerves, are sensitive, and government slaughterhouse guidance bans handling tails.
She wrote: “The cows will have increased levels of fear, distress, and pain from injury (or risk of injury). The cows will have avoidable and unnecessary increased levels of distress and discomfort.”
More than an hour of footage was taken over three days in 2024 and another hour was shot earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the business, Curtismill Holsteins, said: “As a family farming business that is fully committed to best-in-class welfare, we are extremely disappointed to see this undercover footage, which shows staff behaviour that is completely unacceptable to us.
“We are taking immediate action and launching a full, independent investigation, having an external animal-welfare specialist carry out an additional audit of the farm, installing supplementary CCTV for better monitoring and increasing staff training.
“We are determined to ensure this never happens again.”
A Muller spokesperson said they were appalled by the footage, adding: “The behaviour shown is entirely unacceptable and is fundamentally in breach of the high standards of animal health and welfare which we require every supplying farm to uphold.”
The company suspended the farm was and an investigation was carried out, they said.
“The employees at fault have been dismissed with immediate effect. The issues highlighted have been addressed, corrective actions have been implemented, and the farm continues to be subject to ongoing monitoring and assurance checks.
“We have zero tolerance for animal cruelty or poor welfare standards.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We take animal welfare extremely seriously, and we expect all our farmers to adhere to our high welfare standards. This footage is distressing, and we have suspended the farm with immediate effect, pending a thorough investigation. Any failure to meet our high welfare standards is unacceptable and we take swift action where necessary.”
It’s understood the Crown Estate is looking into the abuse, although it is not involved in farm management.
