St Helen’s Farm

In 2009, almost 100 goats died in a fire because – contrary to the company’s images we are shown – goats at St Helen’s Farm are locked inside factory farm sheds in a system known as “zero grazing” but what the company like to call “hanging out in big airy barns”.⁴

Goats, like cows, must be made pregnant in order to produce milk, so what happens to the unwanted kids? And what happens to the mothers when they are no longer producing enough milk? A 2008 investigation documented a mother goat shot in the head and her young kid cuddled up to her dead body.⁵

A more recent investigation, in 2020, found workers punching, kicking, and throttling goats, twisting their tails, hitting them with a pole and leaving them lame.⁶

The promotional images featuring St Helen’s Farm’s founders tend to have a lovely green field as a backdrop,^{7 8} which campaigners say is highly misleading for a company that keeps its goats in zero-grazing sheds.

Like every other farm business where workers are caught abusing animals, the owners had “no idea” this was going on.⁹ Really?

In 2020, St Helen’s Farm goat milk was recalled when it was found to contain antibiotics, including penicillin.¹⁰

In 2021, St Helen’s Farm goat butter was recalled when it was found to be contaminated with shards of metal.¹¹

A St Helen’s Farm worker was killed in 2022 after being crushed by a forklift. The company pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches and was fined £200,000.¹²