The beautiful picture of the little lambs is not only elicited by children.
Many adults also shout at this sight: “How cute! How cute! ”
But the cruel truth is: All these little lambs will soon end up under the butcher’s knife – punctually for Easter, they end up on the plate as roast lamb.
Because for many people who celebrate the “Festival of Life”, children’s corpses are part of the traditional Easter banquet.
In Germany, sheep have long ceased to be kept for their wool, as world market prices for wool are below production costs. Today sheep are used almost exclusively for meat production: 98 percent of the sheep farmers’ income is generated from meat sales. One to two million sheep – almost exclusively lambs – are slaughtered in Germany every year.
A particular specialty at Easter is milk lambs – infants who still drink from their mother and have never eaten grass, between 8 weeks and six months old.
Because of this, they have very white meat that is called! “As soft as butter, with delicate fibers and low in fat” applies – just baby meat.
Milk lambs, which – as the name suggests – are still infants, usually only reach an age of 2-6 months – fattening lambs an age of 6-12 months before they are snatched from their mothers – and not infrequently at just 8 Weeks to be cruelly slaughtered!
The babies tormented and murdered, the mother animals disturbed and deeply traumatized – in the name of Christian tradition, for the Easter “palate tickle”.
Since the local sheep farming and lamb production rarely yields the desired financial return, the animal children are also imported en masse from abroad in order to satisfy the annual greed for Easter lamb.
Milk lambs, which – as the name suggests – are still infants, usually only reach an age of 2-6 months – fattening lambs an age of 6-12 months before they are snatched from their mothers – and not infrequently at just 8 Weeks to be cruelly slaughtered!
The babies tormented and murdered, the mother animals disturbed and deeply traumatized – in the name of Christian tradition, for the Easter “palate tickle”.
Since the local sheep farming and lamb production rarely yields the desired financial return, the animal children are also imported en masse from abroad in order to satisfy the annual greed for Easter lamb.
In order to prevent the suffering of the Easter lambs in the long term and to prolong their unspeakably short lives, an alternative holiday menu helps.
At Easter, do without the meat of the little sheep, which, due to a stupid tradition, have to die after a few months.
Suez Canal Situation Highlights Atrocious Animal Trade, With 200K Animals Stuck On Ships
When things go awry at sea, livestock on board ships suffer immeasurably. Animals have to stand in their own waste, for weeks on end. And if resources run out, the animals suffer dehydration and starvation; the ones who don’t survive are thrown overboard.
The atrocities these sentient beings are forced to endure are overwhelming.
Recently, a livestock ship with 1,800 head of cattle was denied port entry for THREE months! According to The Guardian, nearly 200 of the cattle died in conditions described as “hellish.”
The animals forced onboard these ships of death are already slated for death – must they suffer unnecessarily before they are slaughtered? Does anyone care for their welfare?
Your signatures and comments will be sent to the European Parliament along with our letter asking for this cruel live export transportation business to come to an end.
WAV Comment – Around August 2010 I was very involved with investigations undertaken on the very same issue which is detailed in Caroline’s article below – the export of young Irish calves to mainland EU via Cherbourg port which is in France.
Here is a link to our other site – ‘Serbian Animals Voice’, which provides an example of the overall issue and a specific investigation report relating to the work. If you just wish to read the report, then here is a direct link:
Working with other EU animal welfare organisations involved in these 5 investigations, I wrote a 125 (A4) page report which detailed all the work and its findings. This was presented (as an overall one off report) to the EU, British MP’s and MEP’s (at that time the UK was still an EU member state). As Caroline details, the ferry crossing from Ireland to Cherbourg can be long – much too long for baby calves who should be given milk from their mothers on a very regular basis.
Our work found that one targeted crossing of calves on the ferry ‘Diplomat’ lasted 23 hours.
This vessel sailed from Rosslare on 28th November 2009 at 1600hrs
The other carrier ferry which was selected to be investigated, was the ‘Celtic Link’, which sailed from Rosslare on 28th November 2009 at 1815hrs, and the actual sailing time was 17.75 hours.
Important – only the sailing times for the ferry crossings (Rosslare-Cherbourg) are given above. These times are without the additional hours taken for transporters to journey from the original point of animal loading to Rosslare harbour, and once the ferry crossing has been made, the additional hourstaken for transporters to journey to approved Control Posts in France once they had alighted the ferry at Cherbourg. So in reality; the times the calves were on truck was longer than that given above.
Once the calves finally arrived at their control post (feeding destination), they were supposed to be unloaded and rested up for many hours in accordance with EU Regulations. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN; and as you can read in the report link given above, exact arrival and leave times were recorded for several transporters carrying the calves.
Despite all this work and the long process of putting an overall report together, our evidence was simply dismissed by the EU; the trade in calves continued, as it does now, eleven years later, and I think I can safely say that all the rules are still being flouted.
This, and for many other export ‘things’ I have been involved with, is the simple reason why I have NO FAITH in anything that the EU preaches when it comes to legislation and the supposed welfare of animals. Animal welfare and the EU do not fit in the same box; we have proven it and all our evidence simply dismissed.
Does it anger me ? – yes, greatly; but it gives me even more impetus to research, investigate, and report on the issue of live animal exports. I think all the recent issues we have seen in Europe and the Suez Canal go to show what a sick and perverted bunch the politicians are who rubber stamp this mass animal abuse to happen. I promise that I will do everything in my power to expose the abuses !
Opinion: Vulnerable unweaned calves need protection in our export trade
Animal welfare campaigner Caroline Rowley outlines why she is challenging the State’s enforcement of EU law to protect farm animals exported abroad.
WE ARE CONSISTENTLY told by the State that the live export of farm animals is a highly regulated industry, with high welfare standards and care for the animals.
Yet investigations by animal welfare groups in Irish and other European countries have pointed to breaches of EU animal welfare stan
dards, as well as evidence of sickness, injury and death among cattle and calves exported to Europe and further afield.
One area of particular concern is the export of unweaned calves, thousands of which, at just 15 to 21 days, are sent on long journeys to veal farms in Europe where they are slaughtered at a few months old.
Exports have grown in recent years; largely as a result of the uncontrolled expansion of the dairy industry that is producing an increasing number of male calves that the sector has no outlet for.
Noteworthy wants to examine if we are turning a blind eye to animal welfare concerns in the live export trade. Support this project here.
A long and difficult journey
European regulations state that animals should not be transported for more than eight hours; however, there are derogations for longer journey times so long as certain conditions are met around rest and feeding times.
In this case, unweaned calves can be transported for nine hours, after which they must be allowed to rest for one hour and be given water and feed as required. The calves can then be transported for another nine hours after which they must be unloaded and fed.
In reality, however, welfare groups have documented cases where calves are in a truck at ports after nine hours and are still on the ferry after 19 hours.
The ferry journey alone is 18 hours and often trucks transporting the calves are at the port for four or five hours before departure time.
Journey logs released under FOI, for example, show the calves have been put in the trucks for around 30 hours before being unloaded and fed at the resting point in Cherbourg.
Negative impacts of the journey
There are also serious concerns about feeding of the calves. At 15 days old, calves are dependent on a liquid diet and need milk or milk replacer at least twice a day.
As there are around 300 in each truck over three levels, it is not possible to access all calves to dispense the milk. In essence, many weeks-old calves are going 24-30 hours with no feed.
Leaving unweaned calves for long periods with no feed can cause all kinds of health and welfare problems. They have little body fat in reserve and the stress of transport means they burn energy at a faster rate than they would on the farm.
They cannot regulate their body temperature effectively and calves that receive no feed during a long journey will be more susceptible to cold and heat stress.
Young, vulnerable calves do not have a fully developed immune system and the lack of feed has an adverse impact further compromising immunity.
Transport is inherently stressful and it is essential that the calves be supported during the journey by receiving adequate nutrition.
To leave them without feed for up to 30 hours will compound the stress of the journey and further compromise their immune system.
Time for Europe to take action
All transporters, including ferry companies, have been authorised to transport livestock by the Department of Agriculture with certain obligations to ensure that the transport of animals is conducted in line with the requirements under EU regulations.
Based on the evidence that we have collected, together with other organisations, we have submitted a formal complaint to the EU Commission against the Department of Agriculture for what we see as failures to take appropriate action in relation to potential breaches by ferry companies whose authorisations we argue should be revoked.
There is currently a committee of inquiry underway in the European Parliament to examine long distance transport of animals, if the regulations are fit for purpose, and how well they are being enforced. The live export of unweaned Irish calves is something that we hope is high up on the agenda.
There is something inherently wrong with a system where calves are born just to be killed, and something wrong with a society that allows it to happen.
Caroline Rowley is the director of Ethical Farming Ireland that campaigns for improved conditions for farm animals, more sustainable and ethical farming methods, and opposes live exports.
You know; with all this kind of thing every day I have to chill out for a while; and music is (amongst other things) a saviour. Sometimes I need to share some music with you as I know you get affected by it all also – you have to get away sometimes, even if for half an hour or less; so enjoy !
Due to the blockade of the Suez Canal, 200,000 animals are stuck on ships without enough water or food (Photo: Animals International)
The worst maritime animal welfare tragedy in history could, by now, be unavoidable, says Gabrile Păun, the EU director for Animals International, an NGO.
There are 16 ships taking live animals from the EU to the Persian Gulf which have been stuck for several days behind the stranded ‘Ever Given’ cargo vessel in the Suez Canal.
Even with the Ever Given now slowly moving again, the live animals inside the blistering cargo containers, which are quickly running out of feed and water, are now nearing an even more tragic end than that which awaits them in the slaughterhouses at their destination.
Even if the ships were to resume full course today, the water and food would not last until their sea journey is over.
Romania is the source for the 130,000 of the 200,000 live animals now caught in the Suez bottleneck.
Some six of the 11 ships full to the brim with the live animals from the South-Eastern European nation are in a particularly critical situation. They were supposed to reach harbours in the Persian Gulf over four days ago, but still have not left the Canal.
According to EU law, ships carrying live animals need to load 25 percent more food than planned for their trip in case of delays, but animal welfare organisations warned that this rarely happens.
Meanwhile, Păun explained to EUobserver that even with the 25 percent buffer, these ships would now run out of animal feed long before they arrive in port.
“A ship that left Romania on 16 March was scheduled to arrive in Jordan on 23 March, but instead it would now reach port on 1 April at the earliest. That is a nine-day delay. Even if the ship had the required 25 percent additional animal feed, it would only have lasted for 1.5 days”, he said.
The ‘ANSVSA’, the Romanian authority in charge of live-animal exports issued a press release two days ago saying that after reaching out to those in charge on board the ships, there is enough food and water to last a few days.
The press release added that live animal exports have been currently suspended until the situation in the Suez is dealt with.
But for Păun, those responsible for the shipment would never admit that animals are dying by the thousands on their vessels.
Meanwhile, the EU legislation does not compel an EU member state to report on animal mortality on board these ships and Romania would never release that information voluntarily because authorities know that it would lead to investigations, he added.
Romania is one of Europe’s largest live-sheep exporters and has several times been singled out by the European Commission for its bad practices regarding live-animal exports.
Last year, Romania was red-flagged by Brussels for failing to meet live-animal transport conditions after more than 14,000 sheep drowned when a cargo vessel capsized off the Black Sea coast.
A year earlier, the then EU commissioner for food safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, urged Romania – to no avail – to stop the export of 70,000 live sheep to the Persian Gulf because temperatures inside the cargo vessel exceed 60 degrees Celsius.
Instead, Romanian authorities increased their live-animal exports, despite an investigation that showed animals exported to Gulf countries dying from the high temperatures, being unloaded violently off ships, squeezed into car trunks, and slaughtered by unskilled butchers.
Păun says the only chance now for some of the animals to make it to destination alive is for Egyptian authorities to move quickly and clear the ships trapped in the Suez.
“I am appalled that legislation did not offer Romania the power to command cargo ships to return back home. Romania should have used diplomatic pressure to resolve the issue,” he said.
“According to a ruling by the European Court of Justice, the EU member state exporting live animals to a third party country is responsible for their wellbeing until reaching destination”, he added.
For Păun, Romania should move toward exporting meat rather than live animals.
“It would cancel the unnecessary suffering of the animals and would be more economically profitable for Romania”, he said.
But even though other countries have agreed that exporting processed and refrigerated meat is far more profitable and less cruel, live animal exports remain unabated from Romania.
World Animals Voice 