1 st April 2024 … talking about animals …
THIS WEEK’S DISCUSSION [number 7 in the series]
Lambs to the Slaughter
Suggested by Gerry Boland, founder of and spokesperson for Animals Behind Closed Doors, advocating for appropriate rights for animals and for a vegan lifestyle (087-6397557)
A FAMILIAR DOMESTIC SCENARIO
JOE: “Honey, look at the lambs in the field. Aren’t they just the sweetest little things?”
MARY: “They’re gorgeous. So cute. So innocent.”
A few hours later, Joe is in the kitchen preparing the dinner. Mary calls to him from the living room.
MARY: “What’s for dinner, Joe?”
JOE: “Lamb chops, your favourite.”
MARY: “Smells delicious.”
DISCUSSION POINTS
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Many people will look at lambs in a field and will be charmed by their playfulness and their innocence and would be horrified if they saw one of the lambs being kicked or whacked with a stick, yet these same people will happily stick a fork into a leg of lamb a few hours later and not make the connection. Feeling compassion for animals yet eating them is a good example of cognitive dissonance.
WHO ENJOYS A BETTER LIFE, A PIG OR A LAMB?
Really there is no argument over which has the better life. Pigs never see the light of day, never get to run around or feel the sun or the rain on their backs. Lambs get to live their lives out in the open, in fields, with their mothers and other sheep and other lambs. And while there are welfare issues with lamb production, they pale in comparison to the welfare issues associated with pig production.
SO, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
The problem is that a lamb’s life is shockingly short; as young as 3 months in the case of spring lambs, 6-9 months in the case of summer and autumn lambs. We bring these beautiful animals into the world, let them run around for a few months, then take their life away. It’s a heartless industry and anyone who sees it otherwise is in need of an injection of empathy and compassion.
A LAMB’S LAST DAY ISN’T MUCH FUN
When she is deemed ‘ready’, she is taken from her mother, loaded onto a packed trailer or a lorry, driven to a slaughterhouse where she will be slaughtered with hundreds of other lambs.
HUMANE SLAUGHTER IS AN OXYMORON
Slaughterhouses are killing factories in which many things don’t go according to plan on a daily basis, resulting in inefficient and painful slaughter. And even when things do go according to plan, the very nature of a slaughterhouse makes for a terrifying experience for any animal, who can smell the fear and the blood and the death even before they enter the building. The attached video footage is a difficult watch and it comes with the proverbial health warning. But we the viewers only have to bear witness; the lambs have to experience the savagery. The first footage is from 9 slaughterhouses in the UK, and the second was shot undercover in Italy. There is no video evidence of such extreme cruelty in Irish
slaughterhouses, yet it would be naïve to believe that the UK and Italy are outliers.
THE NUMBERS GAME
In the week ending 25 th February, 38,969 Irish lambs were slaughtered.
The total number of lambs slaughtered in the first two months of this year is 343,512. Each one of those 340,000-plus lambs is an individual animal, much the same as the young and playful animal Joe and Mary saw in the field that day.
THE FIVE FREEDOMS is a five-point framework and is at the heart of animal welfare legislation in many developed countries, Ireland included.
The Five Freedoms should, in theory, provide for a life worth living for every animal. Slaughtering lambs as early as 3-6 months of age is not offering these young animals a life worth living.
THE OPTIMAL ANIMAL WELFARE POSITION
No mutilations, unless deemed absolutely necessary for health reasons, in which case local anaesthetic must be used. No lamb should be slaughtered before six months.
THE ANIMAL RIGHTS POSITION
Stop breeding lambs. Stop bringing lambs to the slaughter. Let sheep numbers reduce naturally. Let those that remain live out their lives in sanctuaries and perhaps as an integral part of the natural environment.
ANIMAL SENTIENCE – All farmed animals are sentient, that is, they experience a wide range of emotions and can feel pain, just like us. We know this, and yet we turn a blind eye. We can do
better.
We must do better.
I am happy to discuss this issue on air, also more than willing to debate with an industry representative.
Gerry Boland
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