Category: Farm Animals

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

USA: Dear Wall Street Journal: Anti-Vegan Propaganda Isn’t Just Wrong, It’s Dangerous.

WAV Comment – You could say in response that the beef, (general) meat and dairy industries are getting concerned about the amount of people switching to a plant based diet.

An ad commissioned by members of the meat industry claims eliminating beef consumption is not realistic Credit: Adobe.

Dear Wall Street Journal: Anti-Vegan Propaganda Isn’t Just Wrong, It’s Dangerous

The beef industry paid for a major ad to be placed in Wall Street Journal. The ad claimed that meat is not damaging the planet

Article link:

Dear Wall Street Journal: Anti-Vegan Propaganda Isn’t Just Wrong, It’s Dangerous | Plant Based News

Last week, major international newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a full-page ad that praised the sustainability of the meat industry. The ad also took a swing at the vegan movement, claiming that if every American stopped eating animal products, greenhouse gas emissions would only fall by 0.36 to 2 percent globally.

The ad was, unsurprisingly, paid for by the Beef Checkoff, a program designed to increase the consumption of beef.

The Center For Consumer Freedom (CCF) also worked on the ad. The CCF – which has meat industry representatives on its advisory board – runs campaigns attacking environmental protection groups and animal rights organizations.

“Beef’s environmental footprint may drive headlines, but the truth is, eliminating beef is not a realistic or impactful solution for climate change,” part of the ad reads. It carries on, saying that raising cattle actually helps protect the planet.

But the claims lack meaningful evidence. And while the meat industry’s editorial tantrums are not a new concept (see the similar ads it placed in WSJ and The New York Times in 2019), they are arguably more damaging than ever.

The global climate emergency is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. We cannot afford to be spreading misinformation on such a major scale (WSJ distributes around 2,834,000 copies a day).

So, here is an open letter to the publication, urging it to correct the advertisement. You can read the full version below.

Dear Wall Street Journal, Dear Mr. Murray,

We were forwarded the attached advertisement with manipulated science displayed in the Wall Street Journal on August 14, and we would like to ask your help in rectifying the advertisement, as continuing to promote beef consumption will cause tremendous damage to our planet. 

This advertisement is based on questionable data. It is not credible, and contradicts data supported by the international scientific reports and data from institutions such as the FAO, UNEP, and the IPCC (leading international climate data sources).

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, for example, says:

Total emissions from global livestock: 7.1 Gigatonnes of Co2-equiv per year, representing 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic GHG emissions … Cattle (raised for both beef and milk, as well as for inedible outputs like manure and draft power) are the animal species responsible for the most emissions, representing about 65 percent of the livestock sector’s emissions … feed production and processing (this includes land use change) and enteric fermentation from ruminants are the two main sources of emissions, representing 45 and 39 percent of total emissions, respectively.

The US figures for livestock production are lower but typically do not include any emissions caused elsewhere, for example for the production of livestock feed, usually in South America, which are a key driver of greenhouse gas emissions.

Furthermore: 

Switching to a plant-based diet could reduce your food-related emissions by up to 50 percent.

We just launched Diet Change Not Climate Change representing the facts accurately. 

We would prefer the Wall Street Journal to disassociate itself from the advertisement, and a confirmation it will not advertise such misleading data again. 

We would be grateful if this message could be forwarded to the correct department within the Wall Street Journal.   

Yours truly,

Jasmijn de Boo,
Vice President, ProVeg International

Robbie Lockie,
Director of Plant Based News

Regards Mark

Option 1

Option 2
Farm Animals

Winter lambs: the victims of the wool industrie in Australia

A report of the Organisation: “Together for the animals”

In the country of the world’s largest wool supplier, Australia, around 30 million sheep are killed every year as soon as their wool productivity drops.🐑

Australia | 2017 | Sheeps and lambs on a farm with mulesing practice. Mulesing is the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep to prevent flystrike (myiasis). Here: Mulesed lambs next to their mother sheep

The sheep are forced to reproduce and many babies are supposed to provide a lot of wool.
But of them around 10-15 million die a cruel death per year.

The newborn lambs, also called winter lambs, succumb to cold, precipitation and starvation.
Sheep farmers manipulate the due date of their female animals through artificial insemination in order to keep profits high.
Often there are winter births.

As soon as the lambs wean themselves from their mother’s milk, the meadows are lush and rich.
This saves feed for the farmers and at the same time the creatures intended for the meat industry can be fattened faster, but the animals pay the blood toll for this heartless approach.

About every fourth lamb freezes to death in the Australian winter or dies from gross neglect.
In other ways too, like Dr. Frankenstein started the births in Mary Shelley’s bestselling novel.
Through godless genetic manipulation, twin and triplet births are forced.

Due to the insufficient supply of pregnant mothers, the lambs are born weak and often sick.
If the mother dies due to pregnancy toxicosis at birth, the young are left orphaned and run to certain death.
When two breeds of sheep are accidentally paired, undesired animal souls often see the light of day.
Their wool is not economical enough for the wool industry, they are deliberately and mercilessly left to their cruel fate in the pastures.

The surviving babies are cruelly mutilated – their tails are cut off and painful rubber rings are put around their stumps so that they die and fall off.
All of this, of course, is widespread without anesthesia.

Merino sheep are also cut out part of their anal folds to prevent flies.
Also here mostly without anesthesia.
This is particularly painful for the animals and is commonly known as “mulesing”.
And the shearing, too, is brutal and terrible.


Australian farm workers work for starvation wages and the aggressiveness is therefore very high.
The sheep then pay the wages for this.
Many undercover recordings show severe abuse of the innocent animals by workers from blows, kicks, deliberate cuts to ears bitten off.


And many of the sheep are brutally massacred in the slaughterhouse or exported to the Near East, where they are threatened with death from the barbaric slaughter.
Winter lambs really have a hard time in Australia.

We therefore strongly condemn these approaches of the wool industry.
These animals don’t deserve such treatment.
They too feel pain, they too are mothers and children.

We appeal to the clothing industry to ban wool products from their assortment and not to use these animal quality articles on the consumer.
There are enough alternatives.

Vegetable and synthetic wool, bamboo, cotton, hemp, linen, flax, lyocell, tencel, modal, plastic and recycled plastics, SeaCell, soy silk, nullarbor, or viscose are just a few of the empathic alternatives, and the future lies in Kerasynth ( Wool from living hair follicles), Weganool (cashmere made from silk plants and organic cotton), Woocoa (wool made from coconut, hemp and mushrooms) and werewool (wool made from human DNA).
So renounces any wool products according to the motto:

HANDS OFF WOOL, THEREFORE SAVE A SHEEP !!! 🐑

https://www.facebook.com/marschfuerdietiere/

And I mean…The farmers of Australia justify their Dachau-methods – also called “mulesing” – that mulesing only serves to protect the sheep!

In reality, the farmers only want to avoid costly regular shearing of the sheep to avoid infestation with the eggs.
The Australian wool industry itself promised in 2004 to stop mulesing by 2010 and to find alternatives.
A few years later, however, the farmers gave up their efforts and almost nothing has changed to this day – only that today we are informed about these medieval methods – what mulesing is

In 2008, a tangible scandal broke out in Australia.
An exposed Swedish animal rights activist named Katarina Lingehag Ekholm was offered a free trip to Australia by a representative of the Australian Wool and Sheep Industry Association if she would forego a scheduled documentary on the practice of mulesing and not be on the television program (as planned ) would appear.

The process was recorded on video, and the offer is said to have even been approved by the Australian government, which they denied.
The incident with the bribery of the animal rights activist aggravated the criticism of the practice of mulesing, especially from Sweden.

Large US clothing companies and 19 Swedish companies are already boycotting wool from Australia, including H&M.
The Australian wool industry fears that other European countries could join the boycott.

According to the Magazin “trade sheet” (Handelsblatt), Australia annually exports wool with a value of 350 million euros to Europe. Australia earns around two billion euros worldwide with its wool.
Most of the wool is processed in China and exported all over the world from there.
In Australia itself there is no significant processing industry for this animal fiber.

Hands off wool!
Everyone knows the atrocities of the fur industry;
The production method of wool is no less excruciating than that of fur and today, thanks to the internet and the media, we are more knowledgeable than ever.
It’s good that we have a conscience, a big brain, empathy and the ability to make decisions, and can make the right decisions against animal suffering and criminal practices in the animal industry.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News

The Power Of Kindness In Action – (Ex Bile Bears) Moon Bears Rescue and Homecoming. Restoring Faith In Humans.

101 BEARS ARE HOME. NOW THEY NEED YOUR HELP TO HEAL…

Animals Asia had been caring for over a hundred bears on a former bile farm in Nanning, China for seven years. Until the day that all of us here at Animals Asia (and many of you too!) had been waiting for…

Finally, we were able to bring the Nanning bears home to our sanctuary in Chengdu, in what was the biggest bear rescue in history.

If you’ve seen the incredible short film above, you’ll know what a mammoth task it was, and how much work is now needed to rehabilitate and provide life-long care for these brave bears.

Will you help them on their road to recovery with a donation?

For years, these poor frightened bears suffered relentless, agonising bile extractions. The rest of the time they were mostly left in their tiny metal cages, with minimal food and water and nothing to keep them entertained.

Now that these ex-bile bears have left their concrete prison and made it safely through the sanctuary gates, we need to carry out urgent surgery, diagnostics, heart scans, ultrasounds and provide vital medicines – the cost of healing the hurts of all these gentle moon bears is daunting.

They’re finally free, but waiting to heal. Please, make an urgent donation today.

https://help.animalsasia.org/page/86345/donate/1?=undefined&locale=en-GB

A very uplifting video – please give if you can, thank you.

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News

USA: Indiana – Inside East Fork Farms – Will The Authorities Act ?

They could smell the misery even before they saw it.

Inside a sprawling Indiana farm, the bodies of dead or dying piglets just hours old were strewn on a filthy floor inches above a lagoon overflowing with feces. Mother pigs, crammed inside metal crates, lay helpless while their babies cried out in agony just beyond their reach.

If we don’t take action to help piglets and their mothers—and other vulnerable, tormented animals in need—who will?

Please donate to PETA right now to power our life-changing campaigns.

If he were a dog, would you help him?

“At East Fork Farms there is nothing but fear and distress,” a whistleblower wrote. “Pain, injury and disease [are] everywhere.”

Horrifying conditions like these are inherent in the massive facilities where pigs, cows, chickens, and others are imprisoned, fattened, and violently killed, all for a cut of flesh on someone’s plate. Pigs are at least as sensitive, kind, and intelligent as the dogs who share many of our homes—but their wonderful qualities don’t protect them from such tremendous suffering.

They can’t do anything to end the neglect and abuse, but we can.

No one should endure this agony—will you help stop it?

We’re making progress, but there is still so much work to do. A day after hearing from PETA, JBS USA—a subsidiary of the world’s largest slaughterer of farmed animals—banned this hideous Indiana farm from its supply chain. Hundreds of thousands of people have now viewed the disturbing footage online. We’ve placed billboards urging authorities to take action against the facility. And as more consumers than ever consider the environmental devastation, pathogen risks, and cruelty associated with eating other animals, we’re providing a wealth of resources (including our popular, free vegan starter kit) to help kind consumers embrace a healthier and more animal-friendly way of living.

Thank you so much for all that you do for animals.

Kind regards,
Ingrid Newkirk
President

Regards Mark

Recent link on USA pig production:

USA: The Truth Behind the Great Bacon Shortage of 2022.

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

USA: The Truth Behind the Great Bacon Shortage of 2022.

With thanks to Stacey at ‘Our Compass’ as always;

Regards Mark

The Truth Behind the Great Bacon Shortage of 2022

by Stacey

Source We Animals Media, Jo-Anne McArthur

But animal farmers LOVE the animals, and as anag representatives often claim, the animals are treated better than otherhumansmychildrenmysignificantother …

Why do you believe their lies? All animals exploited for food, die for food; any victim “produced” in a manner that considers them commodities, is a being NOT cared for. Animal exploitation is inherently cruel, and the “process” requiring suffering, pain, and violence, is one mimicked globally, from the smallest HappyHappyFarm to Smithfield, it is all related, your Uncle Ted’s Fun Farm that kills ten animals per year directly contributes to CAFOs/FFs/ILOs that kills trillions of animals worldwide each year. Humane? Welfare? Humans have historically claimed animals deserve care and consideration, a belief that has led to the normalized violence and abject fear of animals who are denied all choices about what is fundamentally theirs – their bodies.

I have seen so many people horrified by this expose. Why? What do otherwise rational, knowledgeable people think happens to animals they use and consume?

But I do wonder how many of them are actually horrified enough to STOP CONSUMING ANIMALS. But not contributing to such horrors may be a little “too humane” for people who love the taste of animals more than they believe the animals don’t want to die for such.

And for all the Prop 12 cheerleaders, have you stopped consuming animals as you clearly agree that the current “model” is worse than what Prop 12 will deliver? When veal crates were largely replaced in the United States with a roomier form of confinement, veal consumption INCREASED: people feel responsible inflicting violence on infants because calves are “allowed” a larger prison.

Too, if more space is important for animals, NOT KILLING ANIMALS IS MORE SO. Humans are so obsessed with self-indulgence that they actually believe the cost of “retrofitting” confining spaces is more than the cost of lives.

SL

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Farm Animals, General News

England: ‘Full investigation’ launched over ‘cruel’ Morrisons chickens grown on Norfolk and Suffolk farms.

‘Full investigation’ launched over ‘cruel’ Morrisons chickens grown on Norfolk and Suffolk farms

 

‘Full investigation’ launched over ‘cruel’ Morrisons chickens grown on Norfolk and Suffolk farms | ITV News Anglia

Supermarket chain Morrisons says it has launched an urgent investigation after campaigners claimed chickens on farms run by its suppliers are being grown so fast they can barely stand up.

In a video narrated by the naturalist Chris Packham undercover filming claims to show fast-growing birds deformed and dying on farms in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Open Cages, an animal welfare charity, said new breeds of birds that grow fast feed consumers want for cheaper chicken. They claim modern chickens grow 400% faster than those farmed in 1950.

These chicks are born and locked into these giant factory farms. And in only 35 days are forced to grow to a monstrous size. Frankenchickens are cheap and efficient. Basically all cheap chicken will come from Frankenchicken breeds . People look at this footage and they will think that this is an anomaly – they’ll ask me if something illegal is happening here but no this is perfectly legal.

Connor Jackson, Open Cages Chief Executive

The organisation filmed in four intensive chicken farms in May and June. 

Those farms supply the Cranswick chicken factory which provides meat for Morrisons labelled Red Tractor approved, something designed to reassure people of high standards. 

ITV News approached Red Tractor for a comment but have not had a response at the time of writing. 

TV naturalist Chris Packham said it is ‘cruel beyond belief’ and is calling for Morrisons to sign the Better Chicken Commitment which would mean only slower growing chickens are used.

Other retailers like M&S, Waitrose and KFC are among 240 companies across Europe to commit to stop selling the fast growing birds. 

In a statement Morrisons say they have launched a ‘full investigation’ and that they ‘care deeply about animal welfare’.

We care deeply about animal welfare and require all our suppliers to maintain the highest standards. We have asked Cranswick to conduct a full investigation and get back to us.

Morrisons

Cranswick have yet to respond to our requests for comment, but elsewhere the company has said “we take the welfare of chickens at our farms very seriously and it is always our first priority.”

ITV news has not been able to independently verify the footage that came out of the farms. The video is also edited so may not reflect overall conditions the chickens face.

Morrisons Related:

Morrisons Misery.com

it’s #MorrisonsMisery for Chickens!

FrankenChicken:

Morrisons claims to “take animal welfare seriously.” However, despite horrific animal suffering in its supply chain, it has refused to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment. These scientific measures are backed by over 40 animal protection charities from across Europe. Bred to grow so fast their bodies can’t keep up, ‘FrankenChickens’ sold at Morrisons are living lives of misery. It’s time for change. When will Morrisons hold true to their word and take this issue seriously?

BRED TO SUFFER

Birds have been so genetically manipulated that they grow to be three times as large as they would without such invasive tampering — and in less time. This accelerated growth leaves birds crippled under their own weight and causes a myriad of other problems.

TRAPPED IN FILTH

Industrial farming operations house hundreds of thousands of birds inside filthy, windowless sheds. Due to this severe overcrowding, these birds are provided slightly less space than a sheet of paper to live on. Often they are unable to walk and lie in ammonia-laden litter causing sores and respiratory problems.

Regards Mark

Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport

Australia: Live Exports – Update From Stop Live Exports.org.

Friday 13th August 2021.

Dear members and supporters

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from us, we know. There have been a few changes!

The current pandemic has made it challenging to hold the usual events we do, as we can’t accurately predict how many people will turn up, or if the event will be able to go ahead. We are still here though, monitoring situations at home and abroad, commenting on media and industry stories regarding yet more atrocities for Australian animals, this time in Indonesia, Jordan, and UAE.

Our other focus is on the up-and-coming federal election, now expected to be sometime from March to May 2022. We have also been busy developing new branding to maximise our effectiveness (it’s been over a decade since the last one.)

Some of you will be aware that I moved to Tasmania in May this year. I am still doing the job I have been doing for the past nine years, as much of the work is done remotely, and what can not be, is undertaken by our volunteers. The committee has some fresh blood, and a new president, Rebecca Tapp. They are dynamic, enthusiastic, and have some great ideas. Our committee continues to meet regularly, and I join in via Zoom.
Here is a photo of some orphaned lambs I recently adopted – Buster and Lucille. Unlike the tens of millions of other Australian sheep, they will have a long, safe, and happy life.

Sadly, we will not be holding a quiz night this year, as the planning is quite demanding and time-consuming, and with the situation in other states thanks to the Covid-19 delta strain, we just feel everything is too unpredictable to hold that event this year.

However, the Human Chain will go ahead on Sunday 17 October, unless there are any restrictions on attendance numbers or social distancing, in which case we will also opt to defer for a year. We have had over 1200 people attend in the past, which is not ideal for an event that requires a Covid Plan. Please keep an eye on your emails and our Facebook page for any last-minute changes.

You might have read in the media over the past month, that there have been yet more ESCAS breaches reported in Indonesia (thanks PeTA), Jordan (the one Middle Eastern country we export to where a royal family edict requires animals slaughtered in government facilities to be stunned first), and UAE (thanks Animals Australia for both exposés). There is also another complaint lodged by Animals Australia regarding cattle being leaked from the supply chain in Indonesia, but this has not yet been reported on by the media.

In this, the tenth year of reporting and investigations of Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) breaches, STILL we are seeing animals mistreated and being channelled out of supply chains and treated horrifically at slaughter. Surely, after a decade of ESCAS, a one-strike rule should apply to any country not strictly adhering to ESCAS regulations.

Fremantle has been quiet, with only four ships in total docking since the northern summer trade moratorium started on 1 June. Three ships loaded feed and continued to Portland, and one loaded cattle bound for Mauritius. Liberal MPs have recently called for a dramatic shortening of the 1 June to 17 Sept moratorium on live animal exports to the Middle East, stating that it can be done successfully. This is despite records from the last monitored shipment that left in that season, showing that sheep were subjected to days of wet-bulb temperatures of up to 34 degrees (sheep suffer from heat stress once wet-bulb temperatures exceed 28 degrees). So despite their claims that “only” 28 sheep died and the voyage was, therefore, a success, one can be assured that every single animal on board suffered to some degree with wet-bulb temperatures at that level.

In 2018, the Labor Party pledged to phase out live sheep exports in under five years. We urge you to contact your Labor MP and ask them to not go back on their word. With a federal election now expected in 2022, please remind them of what their constituents want – an end to all live export, but at the very least, a cessation of the live sheep trade; this would likely also see an end to any cattle being sent by sea to the Middle East, as it would no longer be cost-effective. Whilst the aim of our organisation is to end the trade in all live animals, we see the live sheep trade to the Middle East as the priority, both because of the length of the voyages, and the lack of stunning in all but one destination country. Animals Australia has made it easy for you – just click here.

We are so grateful for your unwavering support, which has been vital in helping us continue our important campaign to end the live export trade. Though we have experienced a drop-off in donations and memberships due to the global pandemic, we have a solid, strong community that stands steadfast and determined to stop this trade once and for all. Thank you for everything you do for the animals.

If you are unsure of whether your membership or monthly financial pledge is still current, or you wish to recommence membership or monthly donations or increase or decrease the amount, feel free to get in touch with me at  info@stopliveexports.org and I can assist. If you know you are no longer a member or have never been a member, sign up here, and if you wish to start or recommence monthly donations, which greatly help us fund our ongoing campaign, sign up at GiveNow here. You can pay via credit card or direct deposit; weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually, or make a one-off donation.

Follow us on Facebook for all the latest.

For the Animals

Katrina Love
Campaign Manager

Regards Mark

Farm Animals

US-Pennsylvania: “humane” turkey farm

If you’ve ever shopped at Whole Foods, you may have seen signs posted in the meat department that say things like “enriched environment” and “treated humanely.”
But what a PETA investigator documented at a series of Pennsylvania turkey factory farms tied to a Whole Foods supplier reveals that these signs are probably worth less than the recycled paper they’re printed on.

Farm workers feeding “humanely raised” turkeys to stores such as Whole Foods were filmed torturing animals.

The horrifying masked footage obtained by a worker who was secretly doing a side job for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also shows that the worker is trampling, kicking, and beating birds.

Taken at Plainville Farm in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. The farm also supplies stores such as Publix and Harris Teeter. After being fatally injured by a worker, the bird was photographed cramping in pain and left to die on the concrete floor of a harshly illuminated barn.

The footage was shot by PETA activists who worked 11 shifts in 10 different plain buildings in July and August this year, claiming that the company is “humanely” raising birds in a “stress-free environment.”
Pennsylvania police have been investigated and told the New York Post Thursday that their animal cruelty office is “currently” reviewing information from animal advocacy groups.

Workers on a plainville farm can be seen picking up large birds with fragile wings and necks before throwing them into the air across the farm.

“Instead of trying to stop this abuse, one supervisor himself kicked a turkey and repeatedly encouraged workers to abuse the bird,” PETA said.

It is about “terrible atrocities.”

“A worker picks up a bird, tries to break his neck, and then puts her between his legs. When he hugs her with an injured neck, he mimics masturbation,” PETA reviews from DailyMail.com.

It is stated in the video. [The worker] Then drop her on the floor, kick her, and let her die.

The disturbing footage shows workers picking turkeys with their necks and fragile wings, throwing them across the room “like a game” to each other and to other turkeys.

Workers can also be seen kicking injured or dying turkeys on the ground.

Continue reading “US-Pennsylvania: “humane” turkey farm” →

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

UK: UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement sets a dangerous precedent for Animal Welfare. Do Johnson and Liz Truss Care ? – Probably Not.

UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement sets a dangerous precedent for Animal Welfare

After several weeks of anticipation, the UK and Australia announced on 15 June that they have reached a political agreement on a trade deal. The future Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will grant huge trade preferences to Australian beef and sheep meat, with no further condition on animal welfare standards. This is a dreadful precedent for UK trade policy.

The Agreement in Principle, published on 17 June, confirms that the FTA will open duty-free and unconditional tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for beef and sheep meat, starting at 35,000 tonnes for beef and at 25,000 tonnes for sheep meat. In both cases, the volume is set to increase over ten years (up to 110,000 tonnes for beef and 75,000 tonnes for sheep meat yearly), after which the TRQs will be replaced by unconditional liberalisation, accompanied by safeguards for another 5 years. 

This result is a huge disappointment for the animal welfare movement. As most UK animal welfare standards are not applied to imports, such a trade deal is likely to fuel intensive and unsustainable farming in Australia, which is extremely detrimental to animal welfare. For instance, feedlots are common practice in Australian beef production and transport rules allow for journeys of up to 48h without food or water. The UK committed to use trade deals to promote animal welfare abroad. Yet, by abandoning the possibility to condition preferential market access to the respect of UK-equivalent animal welfare standards, it renounces to the best tool to achieve this purpose. Conditional liberalisation was part of the calls expressed by the Trade and Agriculture Committee (TAC) earlier this year. 

Similarly to the EU-Mexico Global Agreement, the UK-Australia deal is set to include a chapter on Animal Welfare and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). This is welcome, but the language described in the Agreement in Principle lacks ambition. The UK government is likely to depict the inclusion of non-derogation and non-regression clauses in this chapter as a victory , however, considering the low level of Australian animal welfare standards, a commitment not to lower such standards – or not waiver them – is hardly a ‘success’. In addition, non-derogation and non-regression clauses can usually only be activated when the derogation to or regression of the standards has an impact on trade or investments, which is very hard to prove. 

Allowing such cheap low quality imports in the market in Great Britain will have various implications. In addition to further fueling unsustainable practices in Australia, the massive market access granted to Australian beef and sheep meat could undercut English, Scottish and Welsh farmers, as they remain subject to higher standards – and thus, higher costs. For farmers in England and Wales, this comes at a time when they begin to transition to a fundamentally new type of income support system, one that rewards them solely for better environmental stewardship and for better animal husbandry. If not well managed, this new system could potentially lead to a lowering of the availability of higher welfare British products, and thus to a greater share of lower welfare imports. In addition, central and devolved governments in the UK have set out a range of ambitious agendas to improve farm animal welfare- notably within England – and the lack of measures on imports could well diminish the support for these reforms among farmers in Great Britain. 

By negotiating very fast, without even having published a trade strategy, the UK seems to have sold out animal welfare for the sake of a quick deal. Addressing animal welfare in trade policy requires a long term vision and an understanding of the far-reaching interlinkages between animals and trade. The UK-Australia deal is thus a very bad precedent and does not bode well for future negotiations with the US, Mercosur or India.

Regards Mark