A worker stubbed a cigarette out on a cow's face.

Others kicked, punched, and slapped animals.

Sharp metal goads were used to prod them.

Tails were twisted.

An animal welfare expert reviewed the footage and found more than 600 separate instances of workers causing avoidable pain and suffering — at a single farm, in a matter of days.

This is not a rogue incident. This is what happens when farms are allowed to operate behind closed doors with no independent oversight.

Albyns Farm is an award-winning Crown Estate dairy that supplies Tesco and Müller. The footage was captured by activist Joey Carbstrong and made public in August 2026. Both companies suspended the farm immediately. The owners, Curtismill Holsteins, dismissed several workers and launched an internal review.

But the cows who suffered deserve more than a private investigation run by the very company responsible for their care. They deserve a full, independent public inquiry — one that looks not just at who did what, but at how conditions like these were allowed to develop at a nationally recognized farm. The results must be made public.

The Crown Estate has a responsibility to ensure that every farm operating on its land upholds the highest standards of animal welfare. Right now, there is no mechanism that guarantees that. That needs to change.

Sign this petition to demand a full, independent public inquiry into the conditions at Albyns Farm — and to require the Crown Estate to publish welfare inspection results for all its tenanted farms.