Program Manager / Ali: We are in Hälsingland and behind us here we have one of the largest farms in the area. Me and my colleague from SVT Gävleborg Cissi Eriksson Granér, we have entered a world that few of us have contact with, but which is actually part of our everyday lives.
Reporter / Cissi: It's about milk. And here on the mobile we have a movie that was filmed just a few weeks ago from this farm. This is not any farm. From here, all milk is taken to Arla or the Bregott factory if you wish.
Program Manager / Ali: Yes, the film shows a reality of how Swedish dairy cows can have it - but which we consumers rarely or never have seen. Now let's go in and try to get in touch with the dairy farmer and the pet owner who runs this farm.
The farm here in Hälsingland is owned by a man, resident one and a half hours drive from here.
Not long ago, this was described as the largest dairy farm in Norrland. Today it is still one of the larger in Hälsingland and one of the over 2600 farms that supply milk to Arla in Sweden.
Arla Foods - the jointly owned multinational large company - is today
one of the world's largest dairies. In Europe, over 10,000 dairy farmers gather. Everyone has seen their profession, their business and thus their lives change dramatically over the past decades. For today's modern economy - from a small scale craft.
From journal film:
Livestock and dairy production are the largest and safest income for farmers across our country. In this movie about the Milk Center we first visit one of the 30570 members ...
Today we are perhaps most familiar with Arla's now classic commercials "Bregottfabriken" with the well-kept and prosperous cows on the evergreen meadows, which have rolled since the 90s.
And since then they have invested heavily in marketing how good the Arla cows are in the Swedish "Bregott factory".
Sara: We've been out in the barn and checked out a bit. There the cows go in so-called loose operation, which means they go around as they want. They are lying in recliners, eating at the feeding table. Milk in robot. In between, they choose whether they want to be outside or inside.
Young farmers are highlighted to talk about sustainable milk production. And the importance of caring for the cows in the best possible way, in the best possible environment. Everything for animal welfare. That's what Arla wants to stand for and promote.
Anna: Right behind me here you have Brumma. One of them ... corners! I am one of the farmers who will be participating in Arla's film project here this fall.
In their quality program and regulations "Arlagården" it is possible to read in detail about what far-reaching requirements are placed on the members. And that they have to live up to in order to deliver milk to their dairies. There stands:
“We work to meet the basic physiological and behavioral needs of animals so that their health and well-being are promoted. The animals should be healthy. The animals should be kept and maintained in a good environment. "
This is how Arla wants to convince us that everything is right and that you have control over all of his "Bregott factories" around Sweden.
Farmers: There is a desire to come closer, knowing in whose soil my food has grown. How is it grown? That you can be proud of what you produce. That it is not just words but reality as well.
Program Manager / Ali: Yes, this is the picture Arla shows of how Swedish dairy cows have it. And it certainly fits with most of their farms. But we have had access to films, pictures and testimonies concerning this farm. And there is a reality that is quite different from the one Arla shows up in her marketing.
It is early December eight weeks ago. It's late at night. The cows are milked, the working day at the farm is over and the staff has gone home.
Every other day Arla comes and fetches milk from the farm. In the spring of 2018, the County Administrative Board estimated that there were 600 cows, heifers and calves in the yard. The owner has big plans for the future and a few years ago he applied to triple his business to increase profitability. But he has encountered resistance.
For a large number of villagers have appealed and written protest lists against how he manages the farm and animals.
XX: The biggest problem I think for us who live here is that the owner does not care for the animals he has. Last summer, I reacted a lot to the fact that some looked way too skinny
YY: So, as I see it, he can't take care of the animals today, so how will he then be able to take care of 800 animals. It's dirty, the animals are dirty. They are malnourished, they are lean, they look scared.
There are many who have in various ways made serious accusations of a misery and suffering that has been going on for a long time. About animals that get bad.
The County Administrative Board is responsible for ensuring compliance with animal welfare laws. And there you know the owner of the farm well.
Jenny Larsson, Head of Unit Gävleborg County Administrative Board: It is a dairy farm that runs milk production. We have been there and done checks a number of times in recent years. We have identified shortcomings in several checks, but we have also been there and done checks when it has been in compliance with the legislation.
Reporter: What have been the flaws?
Jenny Larsson: The deficiencies that we have decided on and which we can thus also talk about, it has been about a certain overcrowding in boxes, it has been about animals that have been dirtier than what is okay, a number of animals or a certain number of animals that have been in the downhole ... among other things.
Since 2010, 38 applications to the farm and the owner have been handled by the County Administrative Board. But the business does not appear to have been significantly affected.
We get in touch with a number of former employees and others with insight into the business. We get access to pictures, movies and documents. Pictures that should have been taken this summer show animals that look very skinny.
We ask Kalle Hammarberg, a retired agricultural and county veterinarian with many years of experience in animal husbandry of cows, to look at the pictures.
Kalle Hammarberg: Usch. There are too many. There are too many. Every now and then a cow on a farm if there are several hundred animals on the farm can be skinny, but when it looks like this then it has gone far too far.
Reporter: This is still a breed that I understand can still look a bit skinny?
Kalle Hammarberg: Yes, that's it ... this is a Holstein-Friesian cow. But she is milk-producing and if you have a cow that looks like that, I do not think milk production is particularly high. It can't be economical to have them here.
Reporter: But even though they may look lean, do you think this is too much?
Kalle Hammarberg: Yes it is. Yes, you see here that this has started to melt down your muscles to nourish. Where I draw the limit of suffering, it goes so far when it is not enough to have the body fat they have but they begin to melt down their muscles, where I draw the limit of suffering. This is a case for me.
These images have also been carefully examined and analyzed by experts at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Birgitta Staaf Larsson, qualified handler National Center for Animal Welfare, SLU: The assessment I have made is, of course, a hole assessment on these animals. And that's it ... I think there were 14 people that I could immediately see what identity they had, but then there were some more animals too that we don't have the identity on.
Birgitta Staaf Larsson: You see, here for example you see that it is, there is very little muscle on them. You can see here that it is very sunken, all the ribs can be seen here in this picture for example. Here you even see that it is completely sunk here between the committees and yes, very knotty hips ... leg bones and hip bumps. So it is very lean animals.
Reporter: Would you say they're here ...
Birgitta Staaf Larsson: You look here, totally muscular.
Margerata Stéen, associate professor of veterinary medicine National Center for Animal Welfare, SLU: Even the hunger group you see this.
Reporter: Would you say these animals are suffering?
Birgitta Staaf Larsson: Yes, absolutely. This is a suffering for the animals.
Reporter: Is it animal cruelty?
Birgitta Staaf Larsson: It is up to the courts to make that assessment, we cannot do that. But then I would, yes considering that there are so many animals that are so skinny, now the animal protection law is written for each individual animal, animal cruelty it is in the crime bar, of course, but then you see that there are so many animals that have been kept so lean so I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a pet plague case of the whole thing.
Reporter: What can it be because they are so skinny?
Margareta Stéen: Yes, it is because they do not get enough food in relation to what they give them. These are, after all, milk cows, they are high-performance dairy cows, Holstein, they give away extremely milk, up nine to ten thousand liters a year. And then you can say something like this that you have to give them food in order for them to give away this milk quantity.
Exactly what caused these animals to be so lean, how many people are affected and how long it has been going on, only the animal owner knows. But one explanation we hear is problems with the quality of the feed. This was noticed at the local Dellen Dairy.
Peter Jonaszon, co-owner of Dellenmejeriet: A small thing happened a year and a half ago. The milk that came from the farm, there were some ... some taste changes to the milk that we had a little trouble with.
Dellenmejeriet is a small dairy in Hälsingland that started two and a half years ago by seven former dairy farmers. The farm was one of the first and the largest they signed an agreement with. But suddenly the sales of the products fell.
Peter Jonaszon: People started calling and said it tastes a bit strange and it's such a thing as, it's a taste like ... It's not something dangerous in any way, it's just that it's an unknown taste on the milk that people react to. I myself never felt that there was any taste on the milk, but there were others who reacted the more.
The strange taste they managed to trace to this particular farm and on one visit it was discovered that the feed given to the animals was poor and joking.
Peter Jonaszon: We noticed then that we should probably not put all the money in a scales or in a hat or what you say now. Without it, we had to distribute it so we started looking for other farms to collect milk from.
The dairy chose to terminate the agreement and after that the taste problem disappeared. But Arla's tankers continue to collect milk from the farm.
Like many other farmers, the animal owner, the farmer, receives EU subsidies for his activities. He receives more than SEK 2 million a year. But what sets the farm apart from many others is that the owner lives 10 miles away and is reportedly rarely in place.
Over the years, the farm has instead had a large proportion of foreign labor, mainly from Eastern Europe. Many of them testify to constant conflicts regarding wages and working hours. But also about the poor animal husbandry.
Last year, a Polish staffing company went to court to get money for wages. One of those who worked on the farm for a short period tells us what he saw.
Former employee: I saw the animals were not treated right by the management. And the owner was not involved in running the farm, he didn't care about it.
Reporter: He was never there?
Former employee: No no, and I know he was not speaking well in the telephone also with the workers about the problems in the farm. It was overfull everywhere. The building was completely full of animals, completely full. Overload and they were not healthy.
He shows us a picture taken in the summer of 2018 when he was in the yard. He sent the photo to the pet owner when he left the farm.
Reporter: Did you talk to the owner about these problems?
Former employee: Yes, I have spoken to him and I also send the pictures to him.
Reporter: What did he say to you?
Former employee: That he was saying to take the animals inside so the neighbors don't see them.
Reporter: To hide them you mean?
Former employee: Yes.
We get in touch with another man who worked on the farm.
Former employee: Hello.
Reporter: Hello.
He also reacted strongly to animal husbandry. He speaks in his native language, but is afraid to be identified. Therefore, we have instead chosen to translate and reproduce what he says:
“I have worked in many dairy farms in Europe and have never seen anything like it. The animals were abused and did not feel well. Many were just too skinny. The food was poor, moldy even the route sometimes. The only important thing was to produce milk. "
He especially remembers one event. It's about this dairy cow. According to him, she had received an injury that was not treated and had to stand with the severely injured leg for three weeks.
“It was an open wound all the way to the skeleton. But nobody did anything. Such a cow would normally have been killed. But we were ordered to milk her as usual. "
Kalle Hammarberg: This is serious, I suffer from seeing this. It's awful. Yuk. It can not be this way. She must have stuck to something. Worn off the skin and to me it seems to have stopped bleeding also so this is an injury that is healing. This is an immediate killing case for animal welfare reasons.
Margareta Stéen: It is a rot in a wound that has been going on for a long time. So this is nothing that has been taken care of. This is nobody ... we don't know if there has been any veterinarian out here, but it doesn't look like it. I mean then it would have been fixed. This is a great suffering for this animal.
Reporter: In what way?
Margareta Stéen: Well, because this still goes to the bone so when we, this is a little bad picture here but when we have penetrated this picture, we have looked at it very carefully you can see that the wound , that is, the rot of this muscle on the bone, on the bone goes all the way to the skeleton. And it must hurt incredibly and be terribly painful for this animal.
According to the foreign worker, the cow was eventually killed.
“I think someone else cowed on her so that her leg went off. She was killed only when she couldn't get up. "
Margareta Stéen: I would say that it is a very crime against the Animal Protection Act and maybe even against the Criminal Code. The crime bar then is two years in prison really.
Reporter: According to information we have, the leg went off in the end.
Margareta Stéen: Oh… yes.
Reporter: What do you think about that?
Margareta Stéen: So I'm very taken when you say it.
Arla's own quality program and regulations "Arlagården" emphasize the importance of following the law when handling dead animals. It says that: “Dead animals are a contagious risk and therefore there are special rules. While awaiting transport, the dead animal should be laid apart on a hard surface and covered ”.
But we get further pictures and testimonials from the farm which shows something completely different. These pictures were taken almost a year ago.
Kalle Hammarberg: It hurts me. A dead animal on a farm, or two on a large farm that I understand this is. But partly there is legislation that says that they should be notified and collected.
Reporter: But from the point of view of infection control? How long is it okay for the animals to be in the yard like this? Or is it okay at all?
Kalle Hammarberg: No, it's not okay. Without it, the law is clear. There are EU regulations here and they are based on infection prevention reasons. Do not allow animals that can carry any infection to remain in the yard, they should be handled that way.
Reporter: They should be handled at once. But you can't understand then that it can take a while. They may have died and so will it take a while before they can leave? Can't you understand it?
Kalle Hammarberg: Yes, then you would like to know how long they have been there. But there is nothing ... here we have a head and I actually see no bullet hole in it. So this one has killed himself.
When the pictures are taken, a notification is also made to the municipality. Dead animals are considered to be an infectious risk for several reasons. If, for example, wild animals come to the body, a possible infection and disease risk spreading further into nature.
The law is clear and the responsibility for the control of dead animals lies with the municipality's environmental office.
Margareta Eiserman, Environment and Health Protection Manager Norrhälsinge Environment Office: We received complaints that there were dead animals on the farm and a couple of complaints that came in. And it is so here that there are rules, very clear rules on how to handle dead animals. Both they must be transported out of a company that is approved for these types of transport and also how it awaits transport from a farm, in which way it should be stored.
When the municipal officials go to the farm, the animal owner is not present. Without being met by a person you perceive as a foreman. In the municipality's notes we see that he stated that the animals have been there for at least two weeks.
Margareta Eiserman: Then it is true that the company does not pick up the exact same day maybe when an order is made. But an order was made two days before we were out on site. And that is precisely why the company must have good rules or good routines for how to store it while waiting for transport on the farm, so as not to attract wild animals that can come and crunch them in this way because this is not okay .
Reporter: No, because according to your inspection records, the foreman says that the animals have been so for two weeks something.
Margareta Eiserman: Mm, then the company has failed. Definitely. They should not lie that way, they should have ordered a pickup when they have so many animals. They had three large animals and six calves.
The storage of the dead animals on the farm can thus very well be a serious infection risk and a law violation. And when we see who the man that the municipality met in the yard is, we realize that his presence there can also be a criminal offense.
He has previously had a so-called animal ban for cattle after the County Administrative Board in another Norrland County has stated that he repeatedly seriously misconducted his own animals. It was about poor feed, lean and sick cows and calves, the animals were dirty and had lice.
A few months after the decision to ban animals, it was found during an inspection that there are still animals on the farm that are doing poorly. In their report, these pictures are shown of lean calves with diarrhea.
Although the County Administrative Board in his home country has decided on animal bans - he has thus worked on the farm in Hälsingland.
Reporter: This is Ali Fegan on Sweden's Television, Assignment Review.
Workers: I have nothing to tell. I have no comments.
Later he sends a text message saying that he was only hired for machine driving and repairs. But according to the municipality's notes, he himself states that it was he who killed the animals that lay dead on the farm.
No one is allowed to enter a barn with animals without the owner's permission, not even the County Administrative Board has an unannounced check right to enter, unless the owner or other staff is present. This makes it almost impossible for us or any other outsider to see and document how the animals are doing on the inside.
Sources that in various ways had the right to be there tell the Assignment review about lean animals and feed that does not measure up. About sick cows that are still milked and about high mortality of calves. And an extremely dirty environment in which the cows are forced to live.
But we have gained access to a newly made film from inside the dairy.
Reporter: We also have a movie that we would like to show you. I'll bring this up. This is how it is from inside the courtyard here.
Kalle Hammarberg: Shit over all approved limits. The cows are in the dirt.
Margareta Stéen: So I who have been a county veterinarian for many years, I have to say that this is among the worst I have seen.
The film should have been made less than two months ago, in early December. It is a total of about half an hour long. This is a clipped version of it.
The film also shows parts of the barn that look relatively good. But above all, it reveals that many animals are forced to wade around and lie in a thick layer of urine and feces.
And that there are also extremely lean animals.
Birgitta Staaf Larsson: Yes, these are our food-producing animals.
Margareta Stéen: Yes, this is our food. So yeah… the guy is watching it. It's really unworthy. I have not seen anything like this before, yet I have worked with animals and animal welfare and animal welfare.
Reporter: And what you saw on the movie here?
Kalle Hammarberg: Ugh that was fucking awesome. Excuse the phrase, but not so bad it should be. What I miss is a picture on the feed table to see what they eat. Because when the cows start to look like this, then you become worried about what the food looks like?
Birgitta Staaf Larsson: That's really bad. That's really bad. This is not how it should look. And it was like me, that is. It's not just animal suffering. Without it, it is also a great pity for all those who do well. For this, the whole industry is blacking out when it gets this way. So this is not acceptable, absolutely not acceptable.
Programmer: Skinny and injured animals, dead cows and calves that are not handled properly and animals that are forced to lie in and wade around in their own faeces. But what have the authorities really known and done to prevent animals in here from suffering and suffering in a way that experts say is completely unacceptable?
Reporter: But first, we should try to make contact with the person who may have the greatest responsibility - the owner of the farm and the animals.
Reporter 1: Hello, hello. Can we just ask a question? Hello?
Workers: Hi.
Reporter 1: Hi. We come from SVT Assignment review. We would just like to talk to someone who is the manager here or foreman.
Workers: You interfere with the business. Right? You take up my time.
Reporter 2: But we just want to ask some quick questions.
Reporter 1: Is there any foreman that we can talk to?
Workers: I've got it (?). You should not talk to anyone here. If you want to talk to someone, you have to talk to the owner.
Reporter 2: Where is he? Is he here now or?
Workers: You can check with him wherever he is.
Reporter 2: But he's not here?
Workers: No.
Reporter 1: But do you have a number for him?
Workers: No ... but it is your job or how to review and check this out, right?
Reporter 1: Yes, but we may ask?
Workers: Then so, then you do your job and leave. Thanks so much.
So the owner of the farm lives an hour and a half away. Neighbors and former workers have testified that he is rarely there - and the times we have been here he has not been seen.
Reporter 2: Yes, we should go home to him then. The boss. The owner. If he's not here.
The County Administrative Board has the main responsibility for ensuring that our animal welfare laws and regulations are complied with. They are the ones who go out to the farms, inspect and receive reports of neglect and suspicion that animals are ill.
Thus, 38 such notifications have been received by the County Administrative Board in Gävleborg regarding abusive conditions on this farm. Over the years, people have been on site and checks have been made numerous times. And made several decisions on so-called injunctions - demands for improvement.
But exactly what they have seen and what measures they have taken cannot be ascertained.
Jenny Larsson: When it comes to agriculture and our work on agriculture, the information we have most often is covered by corporate confidentiality. And corporate privacy means that we are not allowed to disclose information that could cause harm to a company. This means that what I can talk about for this farm is quite comprehensive information then. Except when it comes to decisions that are public in their entirety and that applies both orally and in writing then.
But we know that the County Administrative Board has already paid attention to the dirty environment on the farm. And now we are showing the newly shot film from inside the barn that the unit manager does not want to comment more than generally, because she does not know where it is filmed.
Reporter: Do you think it's dirty in these pictures?
Jenny Larsson: Yeah, in these pictures, or in this movie, I think it's too dirty in this barn. Absolutely.
Reporter: That's what you say you made an order that it was too dirty for example and that the animals were skinny. We can see that here, too.
Jenny Larsson: In our presentation we have said that there were animals that were too dirty. We have not made any injunction concerning the cleaning itself, no part of the injunction dealing with the cleaning itself. Then, of course, those things are interconnected. If the animals do not have a sufficiently clean bed, they will become dirty. That's how it is.
Reporter: Based on what you've done before, how long will it be before you stop for a farm? How long can one continue to repeat shortcomings?
Jenny Larsson: There is no absolute time there. Without it, it is very much about seeing action taken, improvements being made, correcting what we see when we observe and do our checks.
We also know that the County Administrative Board previously commented on unacceptably lean animals. But nevertheless, never had a veterinarian with them when inspecting the animals.
Jenny Larsson: We have to make our own assessments, but we also sometimes use the help of experts to make those assessments. Then we think it is incredibly important that we bring the experts, usually veterinarians or court slaughters if relevant, out on site. So that you can actually examine the animals and make their clinical assessments based on what you see and can investigate.
Reporter: Has this yard been done?
Jenny Larsson: I do not think we have had veterinarians with us on this farm. I don't think we've seen that need so far in fact.
Reporter: You haven't seen that need, what do you mean?
Jenny Larsson: Simply because we have been able to make the assessments that we have judged that there is a need for ourselves on the spot.
Reporter: Is it not relevant to bring a veterinarian in this case?
Jenny Larsson: We have not assessed it so far, but it will show the future if we see such a need. So far, we have judged that we have been able to see and identify the shortcomings that exist with the help of our staff simply.
Reporter: Obviously you still see lean and dirty animals even though it's been so long. Shouldn't you have acted more?
Jenny Larsson: No, I think we have acted in the way we should act as regulators. We have made checks and demanded action. Then it is also the case that the entrepreneur must have a right to have time to correct it. But we will also continue to demand that they be corrected and not rectified, so we will also make tougher demands, escalate with the models and tools we have to address.
The supervisory authority The County Administrative Board believes that they have done what they should. At the same time, the pictures and films show lean animals and an unreasonably dirty environment inside the barn.
And now the abuses in the yard have also become a matter for the police. A report of animal cruelty and environmental crimes came in last summer. The police have received both the pictures of the skinny cows and the film from inside the barn.
The prosecutor has had the case on his table since August, but only now after the New Year has begun to get involved in the case.
Birgitta Fernlund, Chamber Prosecutor: I have not until now taken the time to familiarize myself with the case.
Reporter: Why then?
Birgitta Fernlund: Yes, the reason is that I have prioritized other tasks.
Reporter: What would you say about this case now, when you got into it a bit?
Birgitta Fernlund: It is an ongoing preliminary investigation and due to preliminary investigation confidentiality I do not provide any information at this stage of the investigation.
So although both the police and the county administrative board seem to be aware of the situation on the farm, the business continues. And every week 10000 liters of milk is delivered to Arla's dairy in Sundsvall.
The owner has another farm with cattle that is adjacent to his residence. We go there and try to make contact with him.
In the home, no one opens. But some distance away we see someone working at a tractor.
Reporter 2: Hi are you XX? Yeah ... we're looking for XX.
Reporter 2: In the building?
Workers: Home.
Reporter 2: Home? Is he home now?
Reporter 1: Yeah okay. Can we look and see if we can see him?
Workers: Yes.
Reporter 2: Don't go in now with contagion ...
Reporter 1: No. Hello?!
We neither can nor can go into the barn to see how the conditions are in here. But through the door we see even more cows that look lean.
There doesn't seem to be anyone in there and the man with the tractor is pointing to the owner's house. He should be home.
Reporter 2: Hi XX?
Farm owner: Yes.
Reporter 2: Hi, my name is Ali Fegan and I work at Sweden Television, Assignment review. This is my colleague.
Reporter 1: Hi, Cissi Eriksson Granér.
Farm owner: Yes, hey.
Reporter 2: You we would like to talk to you about your farm, about the animals, about the animal husbandry there and ...
Farm owner: No, I'm not going to talk about that. You get to talk to LRF about it.
Reporter 1: We have a movie here that ...
Reporter 2: No, he didn't want to.
Reporter 1: No. He thinks we should talk to LRF.
Reporter 2: Did he say we should talk to LRF? Okay.
A few weeks later, we finally receive an email from the farmer. He writes that he applied for reconstruction of his company. And the district court has now decided on it because he cannot pay his debts. He does not want to make any other comments.
And at LRF, the Swedish National Farmers' Association you do not want to answer questions about the animals on the farm.
Ulf Wallin, Press Manager LRF: Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to answer some detailed questions about this farm. It is private business that we do not have access to. And even if we had it, we would not be able to sit and share such things with TV.
Reporter: Doesn't it concern you that there are problems with animal husbandry there?
Ulf Wallin: We are very clear that animals should never go bad. But in such cases it must be experts who make such an assessment. We have a control system that works in this country.
Jenny Larsson: As I said, we have been there and done two checks in the fall and we have identified shortcomings and demanded that they be corrected. We will continue to work on this matter until we see that the deficiencies have been rectified. Absolutely!
Reporter: This farm delivers milk to Arla. It is not exactly the "Bregott factory" we could see here in the pictures. As a consumer, do you need to be concerned?
Jenny Larsson: The pictures from this movie that we have been watching. It is absolutely my opinion that animal husbandry should not be conducted. Now I still do not know from which farm it comes from, but no matter what, it should not look like this in a barn, definitely not. Then, of course, Arla must make her assessments and we make judgments based on animal welfare legislation.
What then does Arla say about how the animals are in this farm, about the film, the pictures and the testimonies? And how does everything that we have seen here rhyme with their own message that quote: "The animals should have a good time on the farm all their lives, from birth to slaughter" - because that's how it is in Arla's Bregott factory.
Program Manager: I'm outside Arla's headquarters here in Solna and we really thought we would be able to show tonight's report to them and talk about what it looks like on this farm.
But they don't want to. They don't put up an interview.
First, you demanded that you find out exactly who took these pictures and movies and when. When we then referred to the source shelter they said that you cannot discuss these pictures and films because you do not know exactly what farm they come from.
When we then pointed out that you can identify the cows and associate them with this specific farm, you meant that you still do not want to discuss an individual individual in the media, then with reference to the fact that the farmer is not a company.
So after 14 days of reflection, they finally said no, there will be no interview.
But Arla also writes in an e-mail here that it was previously temporarily suspended by the milk delivery from this particular farm. And that nowadays an audit was done that did not show any serious flaws.
In any case, we have this evening's report here with us and intend to offer them the opportunity to look at it - without the requirement of any interview. Just so they can see what it looks like on one of their farms. We'll see how it goes.
Program Manager: Hi, I'm looking for Caroline Starck, the communications director.
Receptionist: Okay, then you can contact her over mail. She is not discoverable at all today.
Programmer: Because it's not like an interview, I just want to show a movie to her.
Receptionist: Yes, but all communication she wants to be done by mail.
Programmer: Okay, so she's not interested in watching the movie even?
Receptionist: No, but the information I have received is that she wants to be contacted by mail and not here in the office.
Programmer: Okay, can't you just call her and say we just want to show the movie to her.
Receptionist: No, because she's sitting in a meeting right now so I can't call her right now.
Program Manager: No one in the press department wants to see the movie?
Receptionist: They want to be contacted by mail so you can send it that way.
Host: Okay, thank you very much.