20 Questions – extract from Today’s Freaks: An A to Z of How Farm Animals Live and Die

20 Questions

 

1. Is right that there is one set of laws for pets and another completely different set of laws for farm animals?

 

2. Does it matter that most animals that are reared for food are deprived of all means of carrying out their natural behaviour?

 

3. Is it wrong to breed animals that become so unlike their natural selves they could never lead a healthy, natural life?

 

4. Most animal experts agree that animals and humans share the same basic needs – that is, food that suits their digestive systems, safety, companionship and an emotionally normal life. Do you agree?

 

5. Are farm animals less conscious of fear and pain, or less capable of feeling loss and misery, than humans?

 

6. Can there be such a thing as humane slaughter in an abattoir environment?

 

7. Should animals have rights?

 

8. Is it wrong to treat animals like agricultural products? And if so, what can we do about it?

 

9. Is it worse to eat dog or cat than any other animal. And if so, why?

10. Would you be prepared to pay more for animals reared to a higher welfare standard ?

 

11. How would you justify eating animal-derived produce?

 

12. How would you stand your ground if you were mocked for being a vegan or vegetarian?

 

13. There are those who think humane improvements (like Freedom Foods, rose veal or free-range) are a setback for animals because it helps us feel kind when we buy them. Do you agree?

 

14. Can you imagine life without beef burgers? What if food scientists invented something out of vegetable protein that tasted just the same?

 15. Would you try ‘mock meat’ (meat analogues) or mock dairy products? And if not why not?

 

16. Do you think that a fortune could be made by making alternative meat products?

 

17. If you think it is wrong to use animals for food what can you do about it?

18. Will there be enough food for the world’s population if cereal crops continue are fed to farmed animals on an ever increasing scale?

19. What will life be like for the farm animals of the future if breeding continues to maximise their productivity?

20. What kind of animals might the farm animals of the future be?

 Taken from

Today’s Freaks: An A to Z of How Farm Animals Live and Die

by Sue Cross

available from:

www.amazon.co.uk/Todays-Freaks-Farm-Animals-ebook/dp/B006NOC22Q/ref=sr_1_

(or .com for the US)

 

animal farming

I have heard that the film FOOD INC has caused some people to change the way they think about food. I hope my book ON THE MENU:ANIMAL WELFARE will do the same. (On the Menu has been endorsed by, among others, Joanna Lumley, Julie Walters and Ann Widdecombe; see my website www.onthemenu-animalwelfare.co.uk).

In my research I was surprised at the proportion of animals that are factory farmed – 93% in the UK according to some sources. (No wonder the fields are so devoid of animals!) But not only that. What I had imagined was, in reality, even worse – and applies to the whole production process and to the overwhelming majority of all farmed animals: the chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese; the laying hens, quail and the pheasants reared for sport; the pigs,lambs and rabbits; the dairy cattle, beef cattle and veal calves; and also the fish and shellfish.

I knew suffering was involved but the extent of that suffering and the numbers involved and the procedures involved were unexpected: the beak trimming, tail docking, teeth filing, castration, dibudding of horns; the filth and the fear; the abject misery of animals crammed into vast sheds in enormous numbers. These animals never feel the sun on their backs, or the earth beneath their feet, or know the changing of the seasons – or even whether it is day or night.

If, when you out in the countryside, you spot a silo you might be looking at a factory farm: lines of sheds which at first sight look abandoned. From the outside it seems as if nothing is going on – no tractors, no cars, no dogs, no people. Yet inside there could be animals crammed in their thousands, fed and watered by machinery, with machines regulating the temperature and controlling the lighting. (The more light,the more the animals eat; the more they eat the faster and bigger they grow; and the faster and bigger they grow the sooner they can be slaughtered).

The bottom line is that when you go to the supermarket if you care about animal welfare you have to shop around. But it’s not easy to know what has come from a factory farm – the labels are abstruse to say the least! My book shows just how fraught deciphering them can be. But I hope it helps!

Sue Cross. (E-mail: comments@onthemenu-animalwelfare.co.uk)

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