The Times sticks the boot in to farm animal welfare

[Bald Rick]

When I get a chance, I will take a photo of the Editorial in today's Times.

It doesn't make for pleasant reading if you keep livestock as it relies on data from animal cruelty charities to accuse UK farmers of having welfare standards on a par with China and well below our European counterparts.
Stimulated by video of piglets being killed on farm by the use of a hammer ...

The Times view on animal welfare failings: Cruel Country

Britain prides itself on being a nation of animal lovers. Pubs take their names from every creature under the sun. Meerkats sell us car insurance. Every morning, the prime minister is photographed running in the park with his dog. Britons spend fortunes feeding, grooming and treating their pets. In

www.thetimes.co.uk

Welfare chief quits after pigs killed with hammer at abattoir supplying Lidl and Tesco

A farmer has resigned from a meat industry standards body after his pig unit was accused of breaches of animal welfare rules.Philip Sleigh helped to draw up w

www.thetimes.co.uk

Sorry but both are behind paywalls but will sort when I've finished making goo goo eyes at my cows this evening

 

[betweenthelines]

Easy to make things look bad by highlighting the worst cases.

People should bear in mind that some practices that are illegal in the UK are considered normal in other Countries.

 

[Goweresque]

data from animal cruelty charities to accuse UK farmers of having welfare standards on a par with China

Well that just proves its a joke then. I've been to China and seen what goes on with my own eyes. I'll bet not one of the animal charity bods have ever set foot in China, they'll just be looking at official stats as supplied by the Chinese State, aka the Chinese Communist party.

Waiter, my food is still breathing . . .

Eating carp while the fish is still alive is a Chinese delicacy. But it's not the only morally dubious dish on world menus

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bald Rick]

Article on pig cruelty

 

[Bald Rick]

Leader on U.K. livestock and welfare.

Many points, to me, seem wrong and should be challenged but I fear that the Times is driving a government agenda here ....

 

[Forkdriver]

That's appalling. Welfare of animals abused in this way is a poor second to financial considerations. Is it a wonder when people turn away from meat.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

I stopped reading the leader column when it stated that housing in “farrowing crates for 16 weeks” was still legal here. Confusing farrowing crates (legal for housing sows and litters for 4 weeks for piglet welfare reasons) with sow stalls (banned in the UK in 1999 but still legal in most of the rest of the world).
Lazy journalism yet again. As for the China bit, that’s libellous.

 

[onesiedale]

@Bald Rick you are rightly concerned. There is a serious anti-livestock undertone to that editorial. Fair enough, it has been managed to coincide with a slow news weekend, but even so it is stirring up an agenda that has been fed to the editorial team at the Times.
@Christine Watts I do hope you and your PR team at AHDB are on this one and please don't hold back in supporting your livestock farmers.

 

[Dave6170]

The undercover video of that farm is on YouTube now. It doesn't make good viewing, even though some practices filmed are perfectly legal

 

[unlacedgecko]

Article on pig cruelty

Blunt force trauma is the recommended method for humane despatch of piglets (as well as lambs). DEFRA have taken advice from the Humane Slaughter Association, which suggests holding the animal by the back legs and swinging its head off a wall/floor, or striking the head with a blunt object.

In this case, use of the hammer appears appropriate, provided the operator is correctly trained.

NPA responds to consumer concerns over method of dispatching sick piglets

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Red Tractor wants to replace blunt trauma with the use of a turkey stunners. Doubtless the stunner would have to be kept under lock and key in a safe place.
A typical scenario sometimes found on an outdoor unit such as mine is finding a freshly born litter where the sow has accidentally trod on one of her piglets (much less likely to happen with a farrowing crate, but they are "bad" apparently) and the poor little thing has its intestines hanging out.
What is a compassionate stockman to do? Go and get the stunner from its safe place, which might involve a ten minute journey to fetch the implement? during which time the squealing piglet has caused the sow distress and she might well have stood up and been circling in her hut, standing on more piglets.
Or should he pick up the piglet, grasp it by its hindlegs and quickly and efficiently swing the piglet against a hard surface, killing it in one blow?
Of course nowadays before that operation has to be preceded by a quick look around to ensure that nobody is filming/that there are no hidden cameras.

 

[delilah]

@Christine Watts I do hope you and your PR team at AHDB are on this one and please don't hold back in supporting your livestock farmers.

Christine Watts last seen on here 6 Feb. Probably been sent on a spelling course.

 

[DrWazzock]

FFS there are rabbits dying slowly here of mixymotosis. I dispatch those I find humanely. Death is never pleasant but the main thing is it should be quick once a certain stage is reached be that a knap on the head or whatever.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Blunt force trauma is the recommended method for humane despatch of piglets (as well as lambs). DEFRA have taken advice from the Humane Slaughter Association, which suggests holding the animal by the back legs and swinging its head off a wall/floor, or striking the head with a blunt object.

In this case, use of the hammer appears appropriate, provided the operator is correctly trained.

NPA responds to consumer concerns over method of dispatching sick piglets

Seems people would rather have farmland rewilded cos death in the wild is obviously far more humane

 

[DrWazzock]

Wonder what they would have thought of the pig sticker when we all lived in Rose Cottage type rural idyll sucking on straw and leaning on gates? Our pig sticker man was also the hedge plasher. A similar job.
TENDER HEARTED FOOLS.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Red Tractor wants to replace blunt trauma with the use of a turkey stunners. Doubtless the stunner would have to be kept under lock and key in a safe place.
A typical scenario sometimes found on an outdoor unit such as mine is finding a freshly born litter where the sow has accidentally trod on one of her piglets (much less likely to happen with a farrowing crate, but they are "bad" apparently) and the poor little thing has its intestines hanging out.
What is a compassionate stockman to do? Go and get the stunner from its safe place, which might involve a ten minute journey to fetch the implement? during which time the squealing piglet has caused the sow distress and she might well have stood up and been circling in her hut, standing on more piglets.
Or should he pick up the piglet, grasp it by its hindlegs and quickly and efficiently swing the piglet against a hard surface, killing it in one blow?
Of course nowadays before that operation has to be preceded by a quick look around to ensure that nobody is filming/that there are no hidden cameras.

What on earth is their reasoning their?

I guess it's like using lethal injection on horses. A bullet is much swifter and more certain, but looks bloodier. So the injection is considered more humane, but in reality it is for the benefit of the human, not the animal.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Seems people would rather have farmland rewilded cos death in the wild is obviously far more humane

But there is no nasty human involved there. And that's much more palatable. See releasing wolves vs hunting with dogs to control deer.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

What on earth is their reasoning their?

I guess it's like using lethal injection on horses. A bullet is much swifter and more certain, but looks bloodier. So the injection is considered more humane, but in reality it is for the benefit of the human, not the animal.

Totally that.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Totally that.

Fückwits.

I hope NFU and BPA are pushing back hard.

 

[spin cycle]

i put a slightly different 'spin' on it.......this 'farmer' has been preaching about standards to other farmers via his 'role'.....yet standards are not what it seems on his own farm

the truth of all farm assurance....a lie designed to cover the arses of corporate farming exploiting the integrity of decent folk driven to distraction by the paper chase