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Viva! launch mass objection to dairy ‘prison’ in Lincolnshire
Please help stop this development by registering your objection
Viva!
has this week learned about plans to develop the UK’s largest dairy
farm in south Lincolnshire. As a valued supporter, you will be aware that
we have worked for 15 years to abolish factory farming. So we are shocked
and extremely concerned to learn of this application which would see 8,100
cows imprisoned in sheds for the majority of their lives – covering
22 acres of land in Nocton Heath. If allowed to go ahead it would set the
scene for an animal welfare and environmental disaster. Viva! will be doing
everything in our power to ensure the development by Nocton Dairies be thrown
out by North Kesteven District Council planners. But as of yet – only
one objection has been made to the planning application – which is
available online – so we need as many people as possible to now log
on to the website below and voice their disagreement. You have to log in
to leave a comment.
http://planningonline.n-kesteven.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=KUSYLLLLX0000
To read the report on this application from the Farmers’ Guardian, click here.
Viva!’s
main arguments against this planning application: feel free to use these
within your objection.
· Cows incarcerated within normal size dairy herds, of around 120
animals, already suffer extreme pain, distress and discomfort on the average
UK dairy farm.
· 8,100 dairy cows being imprisoned in these dark sheds for the majority
of their lives would multiply these problems; it would be an animal welfare
disaster – the equivalent of battery farming cows.
· Dairy cows are the hardest worked of all farmed animals, suffering
from excruciating mastitis, lameness, infertility and exhaustion from being
continually impregnated to keep their milk yields flowing. Many of today’s
dairy cows are already too big for the indoor cubicles they inhabit, finding
it difficult to lie down.
· This ‘specialist unit’ would be ‘specialist’
in nothing but inflicting an unprecedented amount of agony on thousands
of animals at a time. Factory farming animals on this scale will guarantee
nothing but a massive rise in levels of disease, infection and injury.
· It is beyond belief this company claim the highest of animal welfare
standards would be observed – with plans for just 80 staff and one
vet to oversee a herd of such grotesque proportions.
· Applicants say methane emissions from the animals would be reduced
by feeding a special ‘locally’ produced diet – without,
Viva! claim, taking into account the extra emissions which would be produced
by the production, processing and transportation of the 250,000 litres of
milk the plant would output daily.
· It has been scientifically proven time and time again that the
meat and dairy industry is responsible for the greatest proportion of all
greenhouse gas emissions. I sincerely hope planners aren’t fooled
into thinking such an immense industrial development would do anything but
add to CO2 emissions. Local governments should be welcoming proposals which
encourage a move away from meat and dairy consumption – and instead
examine projects to reinvigorate land to grow crops to feed people directly,
which is the most sustainable way forward
Viva! will be writing to counsellors to urge them to take a step back from this catastrophic proposal and see it for the animal welfare and environmental disaster that it is. We will also be in contact with the local and national press on this issue.
We will also be launching a Facebook group against Nocton Dairy’s application, please see the www.viva.org.uk for further developments.
For more information about Viva!’s Dark Side of Dairy campaign, visit www.milkmyths.org.uk/ or call 0117 944 1000.
PLEASE
FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO WOULD SHARE OUR CONCERN.
For more information, please call Helen at Viva! 0117 944 1000 or email
helen@viva.org.uk