SPCA New Zealand have admitted to being 'horrified” at the inhumane treatment of bobby calves shown in videos taken by Farmwatch and screened on TVNZ's Sunday programme.

'The footage we have seen relating to the handling of bobby calves on farms and in slaughterhouses in the Waikato is not acceptable,” says Ric Odom, CEO of SPCA New Zealand.

Waikato farmer Aaron Robertson says the footage of abuse of newbown calves has 'kind of hit a nerve”. Photo: Supplied.

'We hope this is not reflective of common practice across the industry. 'Clearly better processes, procedures, and oversight are urgently needed. We have offered our assistance to MPI, if required.

'The practices shown in this video footage are completely unacceptable. No animal should be treated in this way and especially not vulnerable baby animals.”

Ric says there are codes of welfare which provide minimum standards on how bobby calves should be treated and transported.

'This footage showed clear breaches of current codes of practice and a complete lack of compassion and care for these animals and their mothers.

'Overall we believe the separation of bobby calves from their mothers at such an early age is inherently harsh and we would welcome the exploration by the dairy industry of alternatives.

'In the meantime, every effort must and should be made by the industry to ensure their humane treatment.”

Following the airing of the footage on Sunday, a Waikato dairy farmer has issued a heartfelt plea asking people not to lump all famers into one group.

Aaron Robertson, a 50:50 sharemilker in the Waikato settlement of Walton, says he shot a video off the cuff, posted it to Facebook and within a few hours messages of support were pouring in.

'We're not murderers, we're not animal abusers ... we're honest family people making an honest living,” he says.

In an emotional video Waikato farmer Aaron Robertson, who has been in the industry for more than 10 years, said 99 per cent of farmers treat their animals humanely.

TVNZ's programme lifted the lid on the treatment of bobby calves. Photo: File.

'All I'm asking is for you guys to have a bit of sense.

'That's not everybody,” he says of the hidden-camera footage captured by Farmwatch and animal welfare organisation Safe.

'That's only one per cent – 99 per cent of the farmers out there work their arses off.”

Aaron regularly keeps a blog, where he posts light-hearted videos about his life as a dairy farmer, but seeing the video and hearing the responses from different organisations prompted him to make a video with a more serious tone.

'I was a bit shocked about it, and I had to let people know that this doesn't happen on my dairy farm and it doesn't happen in the farms of people I know.

'It was raw emotion that got to me and I had to get it out.”

Aaron's video has now been viewed more than 230,000 times, with almost 5000 people sharing the video on their own Facebook pages.

He says the response has been mainly positive, and had hit a nerve with other farmers, many of whom had been in contact to say he had verbalised how they felt.

'There's a lot of farmers that have the same views,” he says. 'I'm just the one who's been pushed out in front.”