Animal activists Dier&Recht have been ordered to remove posters they put up in a campaign against dairy farming practices.

The case, brought by dairy farmers group Agractie, centered around a poster showing a calf in a wheelbarrow, captioned ‘Dairy is causing serious suffering to animals. Calves are taken away from their mother immediately after birth’.

The judge said that the allegation of ‘serious’ suffering to the calf as a result of being removed from its mother directly after birth was ‘not plausible’. Agractie had claimed this prevents accidents and illnesses.

All of the activists’ posters which feature the word ‘serious’ will now have to be removed because they are portraying the dairy sector in a bad light, the judge said.

Dier&Recht said the outcome of the case was ‘disappointing’. ‘The court did not take into account the suffering caused by the calf having to grow up without its mother. This, combined with social isolation, results in behavioural problems and other health problems. The death rate among these animals is higher too,’ director Frederieke Schouten said in a statement.

The group will appeal the decision but said it would remove the offending poster in the meantime.