Panorama – The fallout

Ians brief appearance on the programme, following a 3 ½ hour film crew visit to our offices clearly meant most of Ians answers to the various questions were not what Panorama really wanted.

 

The surprise undercover footage of cruelty by workers at a dairy unit in Wales was rightly condemned by farmers who were furious.  Equally the missed opportunity presented to well known farm vet Roger Blowey came in for criticism as did his unqualified general comment on the lifting hoist use on most units.

 

In reality Freshways had no option but to immediately suspend milk collections from the farm pending an investigation, they had to be seen to take swift action. 

The organisation Animal Equality are demanding the farm be prosecuted for the cruelty crimes.  Red Tractor went from suspending Red Tractor Assurance to terminating within a matter of days.

The big question in the Kite podcast was on the basis of footage shown on Panorama was Red Tractor correct and within its authority making this decision without any opportunity for the farmer to offer any defence?  The farmer was not present during the filming so surely the crime was committed by the staff not the farmer.  Who in Red Tractor was authorised to escalate the punishment?

As was stated in the Kite Podcast this farmer has been publicly hung and he didn’t actually commit the crime.  Sadly, during our lifetimes horrendous crimes have been committed in GB by people including multiple murders.  Those criminals received a fair trial in front of a jury and were duly sentenced.  The firms they worked for whilst the committed crimes, which were during work time, were not sentenced but did provide some evidence.

In the podcast Ian made the valid point that Panorama were wrong to link the animal cruelty footage to the milk price paid to the farm by Freshways.  This is particularly the case because Freshways only started to collect milk from the farm in September 2021.  Whilst the exact date the footage was taken is yet to be confirmed it is understood to be mid-October prior to milk cheque day.

 

This farmer and his family have seen their world turned upside down by the cruel actions of two employed staff out of a total of five (one of whom was filming the footage).  It’s a farm that HSBC bank loans to and is proud to support and the bank has used in its publicity.

There are still lots of questions to be answered and this is far from chip paper news.

 

Listen to the Kite podcast (which Ian is on) for more reactions to the programme: https://www.kiteconsulting.com/podcasts/#/top/1