Source: SAFE For Animals
This Sunday is Bobby Calf Awareness Day – a day to recognise the two million newborn calves who are separated from their mothers and killed every year by New Zealand’s dairy industry.
To mark the day, SAFE has launched a nationwide campaign with cinema ads, digital advertising, and billboards, including one placed outside Fonterra’s Auckland headquarters. The campaign also coincides with the tenth anniversary of SAFE’s internationally recognised Calf in a Glass campaign, which exposed the hidden suffering of bobby calves and forced limited reforms.
SAFE has invited Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell to sit down over a coffee and talk about what a future without this cruelty could look like.
“Ten years on from Calf in a Glass, little has changed for calves,” says SAFE Campaigns Manager Emma Brodie.
“Every year, calves are torn from their mothers within hours of birth, while their mothers call out for them in distress. It’s a cycle of suffering repeated millions of times, and it continues today.”
“It’s time for Fonterra to start looking seriously at animal-free technologies and plant-based innovation that could end the killing of bobby calves for good.”
SAFE says the cost of dairy is not borne by calves alone. The industry is Aotearoa’s biggest climate polluter and a leading cause of freshwater degradation yet continues to market itself as “sustainable.”
“Protecting calves and protecting the environment are two sides of the same problem, and both demand urgent action,” says Brodie.
SAFE is urging the public to mark Bobby Calf Awareness Day by going dairy-free this Sunday – a small action with a big impact for calves and the planet.
“Every dairy product on the shelf represents a calf taken from their mother,” says Brodie.
“This is the hidden cost behind New Zealand’s dairy industry. Calves deserve better, and they cannot wait another ten years for change.”
SAFE is Aotearoa’s leading animal rights organisation.
We're creating a future that ensures the rights of animals are respected. Our core work empowers society to make kinder choices for ourselves, animals and our planet.
Notes:
- Bobby calves refer to newborn calves (males who can’t be used for milking and unwanted females) who are considered surplus to the needs of the dairy industry. Every year in New Zealand, around two million are separated from their mothers shortly after birth and slaughtered within their first week of life. Their bodies are then processed into veal, pet food, and pharmaceuticals.
- In 2015, SAFE published advertisements in the UK Guardian drawing attention to the plight of New Zealand’s bobby calves. In response to the pressure created by Calf in a Glass and subsequent investigations, the Government introduced the regulations on the care and treatment of bobby calves, which required calves to be at least four days old and fit before transport, capped journeys at 12 hours, and prohibited sea transport across the Cook Strait. The regulations also banned blunt force trauma as a method of killing (except in emergencies), required calves to be fed at least once within 24 hours before slaughter (from February 2017), and mandated suitable shelter and proper loading facilities during transport (from August 2017). While these reforms somewhat improved handling and transport conditions, they did not address the fundamental issue of calves being separated from their mothers and slaughtered at only a few days old.
- Earlier this month, SAFE received footage from Lincoln University’s Dairy Demonstration Farm – a facility presented as “world best-practice” and a training ground for the next generation of farmers. The footage shows the reality behind the PR: newborn calves being born into mud, piled on top of each other in trailers where they risk suffocation and injury, and a mother chased aggressively on a quad bike after separation from her calf. This footage reveals the ongoing suffering that the dairy industry fails to acknowledge, highlighting why campaigns like Bobby Calf Awareness Day remain urgent and necessary. All images and footage from Lincoln University must credit Matt Coffey.
