UK coffee chain Caffe Nero has stopped using milk from dairy farmers in the UK’s badger cull regions, as pressure from anti-badger cull protesters increases.
A spokesperson for Caffe Nero, which has three cafes in Ireland, said that it has no plans to change its policy in relation to sourcing milk for its Irish coffee shops. The spokesperson said the coffee chain, in Ireland, sources its milk from Dale Farm – the Northern Ireland dairy co-op.
However, it in the UK, it has stopped sourcing milk from dairy farmers in Gloucestershire and Somerset, where a badger cull has been in place for the past three years.
Caffe Nero said it was changing where it was sourcing its milk due to concerns for its staff. It also said that the change would affect just 2% of its milk supplies.
Animal rights activists, behind the Stop the Cull campaign, have targetted Caffe Nero in recent weeks with slogans such as ‘Caffe Nero a drop of crueltly in every cup’.
Caffe Nero is the UK’s third largest coffee shop chain.
An anti-austerity protest in London on June 20 is expected to see continued protests against Caffe Nero and supermarket chains, including Sainburys.
Stop the Cull has said there was no menace in its actions.
The pilot cull in the UK is in its third year and involves shooting wild badgers, cage trapping (then shooting) are involved in the cull.
The President of the British Veterinary Association John Blackwell said the association was disappointed that the Government has taken the decision to continue using controlled shooting in the pilots given that the first two years of culling failed to demonstrate conclusively that controlled shooting could be carried out effectively or humanely based on the criteria that were set.
