Behind the reassuring labels and familiar supermarket logos lies a story that is difficult to read and even harder to watch. An undercover investigation by the non-profit group For All Animals has uncovered what campaigners describe as “horrific” footage of animal abuse at Two Pools Farm, a dairy farm in Gloucestershire that was once part of the RSPCA Assured scheme, a badge meant to signal high welfare standards. Over just four days, the group says it recorded more than 700 alleged instances of mistreatment. The farm was not an anonymous, forgotten operation hidden from public view; it supplied well-known companies and operated under a certification designed to give shoppers confidence. And yet, hidden cameras captured workers shouting abusive language at calves, striking them with ropes, pitchforks, brooms, feeding tubes, mobile phones, wheelbarrows and pen gates, and dragging cows by their ears, tails, heads and legs through dirty pens. The sheer scale and cruelty of the footage is enough to shake anyone’s faith in the systems that are supposed to protect farm animals. It reminds us that behind every carton of milk there is a living, feeling creature, and that the industry’s glossy image often hides a much darker reality. The investigation did not just expose one bad farm; it exposed the uncomfortable gap between what we are told about modern dairy farming and what actually happens behind closed barn doors.
The details from the undercover footage are deeply disturbing, not only because of the physical violence but also because of the casualness with which it was carried out. Workers were heard screaming insults at young calves, calling them “f*king brats” and “slow prcks,” as if the animals were nothing more than inconvenient obstacles. One clip appeared to show a worker striking a calf in the face with a feeding tube, and another showed a calf being kicked repeatedly while helplessly confined. The brutality did not stop at the visible blows. Calves were shown being disbudded, a painful process of burning off their growing horn buds with a hot iron, without the use of long-acting pain relief. Anyone who has seen an animal in distress knows that pain is not just physical; it is emotional, and the footage reportedly captured calves struggling, attempting to escape, and showing signs of intense fear and stress. Jenny Mace, an animal welfare expert who reviewed the footage, said she saw “widespread physiological and emotional stress, fear, pain, struggling, attempts to escape from restraint and frustrated natural behaviours.” Her words are a stark reminder that these are not passive automatons but sentient beings with a strong will to live and to feel safe. Perhaps most troubling is the fact that this alleged cruelty happened at a farm that was supposed to be a leader in welfare, a place that was certified by an organisation many people trust. If such treatment can occur on a farm held up as an example, one has to ask what happens on farms that never receive any scrutiny at all.
The story becomes even more disheartening when we look at the broader system surrounding Two Pools Farm. The farm was a member of RSPCA Assured, a scheme founded by the RSPCA to recognise farms that meet animal welfare standards, and it supplied both Marks & Spencer and the German dairy company Müller. This was not a fringe operation; it was woven into the mainstream food supply chain. Yet when an inspector from M&S visited the farm on November 18, 2025, the visit lasted just ten minutes. Footage filmed hours earlier allegedly showed workers kicking days-old calves and removing a dead calf with a loader, and in one brief moment, a farmhand appeared to say, “This could look really bad,” as workers hurried to add extra straw to rubber-floored pens. Less than a minute after the inspection ended, a worker allegedly struck a calf’s face with a feeding tube. The image of a ten-minute walkthrough standing between consumers and the reality of animal suffering is profoundly unsettling. It suggests that certification and inspections can become little more than performances, where the goal is not to ensure welfare but to avoid looking bad. This is not an isolated failure. In 2024, the campaign group Animal Rising found evidence of cruelty at RSPCA Assured abattoirs, prompting wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham to resign as the charity’s president. Commenting on the Two Pools footage, he said, “If this was happening at a farm held up as the gold standard, what is happening elsewhere?” That question hangs over the entire industry. An independent review later concluded that RSPCA Assured members were “operating effectively,” but such findings feel hollow to anyone who has seen the footage from Two Pools, and they do little to quiet the suspicion that farm assurance schemes are too often about public relations rather than animal protection.
Beyond the failures of individual farms and inspectors lies a deeper, systemic problem: the legal and ethical framework that governs dairy farming in the UK. Ayesha Smart, co-founder of Lawyers for Animals, put it bluntly: “Farmed animals are the most numerous, most exploited and the least protected [animals] in the UK.” Her words are difficult to hear, but they are supported by the realities of the industry. The UK has around 1.8 million dairy cows. While cows can naturally live for up to thirty years, most dairy cows are slaughtered between the ages of five and seven, once their milk production begins to decline. They are impregnated by artificial insemination when they are barely fifteen months old, and their newborn calves are taken away from them within hours of birth, causing immense stress and distress to both mother and calf. Female calves are placed into pens to become future dairy cows, while male calves are either killed shortly after birth or reared for beef. These practices are legal, and many are normalised within the industry, yet they cause clear suffering. The footage from Two Pools Farm did not happen in a vacuum; it happened because of a system that treats animals as production units, where their comfort, happiness and natural behaviours are constantly sacrificed for efficiency and profit. Even those who try to do better are working within a framework that makes genuine welfare nearly impossible. Laws require cattle to be kept in clean housing, fed twice a day and handled by competent staff, but bare minimum legal requirements offer very little comfort when they allow animals to be subjected to procedures like disbudding without proper pain relief, or to be separated from their mothers when they are only hours old. The problem is not just one bad actor; it is a structure that consistently prioritises output over empathy.
When the footage was made public, both the farm owner and RSPCA Assured responded with statements that acknowledged the seriousness of what was shown, but their words also reveal how difficult it is to achieve real accountability. Mike King, the owner of Two Pools Farm, said he was “appalled” by the behaviour and claimed that the footage was recorded nearly a year ago and had already been “fully addressed at the time.” He said the individuals involved had left the farm and that training and oversight procedures had been strengthened. That may be true, but it does little to erase the images of calves being struck and dragged, and it raises the question of why such behaviour was not reported to the authorities by the farm itself. RSPCA Assured confirmed that Two Pools was a member from 2019 until December 2025, and a spokesperson said that if the footage had been reported while the farm was still a member, they would have immediately suspended the farm and investigated. They also said they had reported the farm to the Animal and Plant Health Agency, which investigates livestock welfare. But for many critics, including Jane Tredgett, a former RSPCA Assured board member who now works with For All Animals, the assurances are not enough. She argues that farm assessments are “limited” because they can only show what is visible during a very narrow window, and she questions how many other farms are hiding similar problems. Marks & Spencer, which had previously stocked RSPCA Assured milk, appeared to remove its milk from the scheme earlier this year, and Müller has long insisted that it has high dairy standards and a commitment to animal welfare. But these corporate reassurances feel distant from the visceral horror of the footage. The public is left to wonder whether the systems designed to protect animals are really working, or whether they simply give us permission not to think too deeply about where our food comes from.
In the end, the story of Two Pools Farm is not just about one farm or one group of workers; it is about all of us and the choices we make every day. When we buy a carton of milk or a block of cheese, we are participating in a system that often causes immense suffering to sentient creatures. The footage captured by For All Animals is a window into a world that most people never see, and it is deeply uncomfortable to look at. It challenges us to question the labels we trust, the certifications we accept, and the assumptions we make about modern farming. It also challenges us to feel compassion. The calves in that barn were not just livestock; they were individuals with the capacity to feel fear, pain and sadness. They deserved better, and they did not get it. We cannot undo what was done to them, but we can honour their suffering by demanding more. That might mean supporting truly higher-welfare farming systems, reducing our consumption of dairy products, or simply refusing to accept the comforting narratives that hide the reality of animal agriculture. The farm owner says the behaviour has been addressed, and RSPCA Assured says it takes welfare seriously, but the deeper question remains: how many more animals are suffering in silence behind closed doors? How many more “assured” farms are hiding cruelty? The footage from Two Pools Farm is a wake-up call, and we have a choice. We can look away and tell ourselves that things are under control, or we can let ourselves feel the weight of what we have seen and work toward a world where animals are treated not as commodities but as living beings worthy of respect. The cows cannot speak, but their silence does not mean they have nothing to say. It is up to us to listen.
