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High-welfare is for life

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Tonight at the Freemason’s Hall in London’s Covent Garden, Compassion in World Farming will be announcing this year’s winners of The Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards. TV chef Paul Merrett will be hosting the awards and guest speakers include broadcaster Nigel Barden, chef and broadcaster Allegra McEvedy and actress and Compassion Patron Alexandra Bastedo. The awards are in their second year, and again there has been a fantastic response from businesses across the UK and the EU.

Last year big name companies were presented with awards for providing cruelty-free food with the feel good factor; these businesses  are making a real difference for farm animals by ensuring they are being treated with compassion. The first ‘Good Chicken’ awards for higher-welfare chicken were presented to companies such as Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Virgin Trains, The Co-operative Food, Pret A Manger and Sainsbury’s. Over 200 million animals already lead better lives each year from the higher welfare policies of last year’s Good Farm Animal Award winners.

Compassion in World Farming’s Food Business Team works all year round with business communities across the UK and Europe to actively promote farm animal welfare. Many businesses tonight will rightly be rewarded for their efforts in ensuring animals that are used for food are treated with compassion.

Don’t forget though, we are effecting change on an immense scale and we need to continue to do so to bring cruel practises like factory farming to an end. We, as consumers, must also make the best decisions we can when buying animal food products to ensure the food on our plate is not a product of misery, pain and suffering. Many of the businesses receiving awards tonight have not just based their decision to implement animal-friendly purchase policies on ethics alone. They are not doing so solely because it is the right thing to do, but also because the people that matter the most, their customers, have said animal welfare is important to them.  As you will see from tonight’s awards – compassionate companies do listen.

Tags: , , , . Posted in Eggs & Poultry, factory farming, General, International | No Comments »

Ramsgate: Ban live exports

Monday, June 20th, 2011

A packed public meeting on a rainy Friday evening in Ramsgate; no-one could have any doubt at the strength of feeling against the live animal export trade now going through the town’s port. 

The meeting was opened by an impassioned speech from local councillor, Ian Driver, who took the initiative and called this meeting.  Local people mingled with stalwart campaigners; veterans of past battles against live exports in Shoreham and Brightlingsea.  The RSPCA were joined on the platform by, amongst others, leading members of the dedicated team from Kent Against Live Exports (KALE).  It was a privilege to be part of the meeting; and to see so many people speaking out against a trade in live animals that is outdated, unnecessary and causes so much suffering to animals.

Before the meeting, I spoke to Meridian TV News; they had been busy getting sound-bites from local people in Ramsgate about live exports.  They told me that finding someone in favour of it had been difficult; testimony to the overwhelming opinion against the trade locally. 

Like so many of us, the campaign against long distance animal transport has been part of my life for decades. It’s a chapter I would rather see closed. It was one of the major issues that motivated Compassion’s founder, Peter Roberts.  The campaign has brought together people from all walks of life.  Together, we’ve had huge impact; at its height in the early-1990s, two million sheep and 500,000 calves were being exported live from Britain to continental Europe; staggering numbers.  Last year, that figure was down to 4,000 sheep; the calf trade ceased all together. 

What is deeply concerning is that Ramsgate is now hosting a resurgence of the live export trade; a trade that is both inhumane and unnecessary.  Only this month, 2 consignments of British calves went from Ramsgate.  These calves will often be reared in veal systems that would be illegal in the UK. There is also a major calf trade from Northern Ireland with 7,000 animals this year having gone to Spain and Hungary. 

Many of the sheep will be going for slaughter.  It simply cannot be right to transport animals over long distances simply to be slaughtered at the journey’s end.  This problem is not confined to British live exports.  Our recent investigation  in Europe pointed to the kind of conditions these animals are often forced to endure; transported in overcrowded and filthy conditions, legs sticking out of the lorries and journeys lasting up to 23 hours long.

You can help.  If you haven’t already, please sign the 8-hours petition. Please write urgently to your MEPs calling for European action to end the long distance transport trade and impose a total maximum journey time of 8 hours for animals travelling for slaughter or fattening.  It is great to see that Peter Skinner MEP is supporting the campaign.  If you live in the Ramsgate area, please write to your local councillors and MPs calling for urgent action.  We are putting together an action pack to help you do just that.  I will post it very soon.  Thank you for helping make live animal exports a thing of the past.

Tags: , , . Posted in General, International | 8 Comments »

Farrowing crates & battery cages

Friday, June 17th, 2011

On some things we’ve seen progress, on others progress remains slow.  An example of the latter in Britain is the ongoing use of the so-called ‘farrowing crate’ to confine mother pigs in industrial systems.  On the other hand, we are on the cusp of a major breakthrough for egg laying hens with a ban on barren cages due next year.

Twenty years ago, I reported on a farming press headline declaring that intensive pig farming was an “industry still in the dark ages”.  The Farmers Guardian article was referring to the use of farrowing crates that are used to confine mothering sows from when they give birth (farrow) to the time their piglets are weaned weeks later.  I quoted two researchers from the University of Guelph as saying, “Crates are so narrow that with almost every move the sow unavoidably rubs herself against the bars and partitions, frequently causing abrasions and, in some cases, swellings”.  I ended the article saying, “Freedom at farrowing is every sow’s right.  The pig industry must drag itself out of the dark ages.  Dispensing with the farrowing crate would be a good start.”  Sadly, twenty years later on, the farrowing crate is still the predominant system for sows kept indoors.  It’s time for change.  We are upping our campaign in the UK and Europe to see an end to this appalling system. 

One major area where it does look like we are seeing progress is with the long-awaited ban on the barren battery cage for laying hens in Europe.  Our ‘Defend the big move’ campaign aims to make sure that Europe doesn’t back-slide on its promise to consign battery cages to the scrapheap of history from January next year.

Big leap for the ‘big move’

It’s a campaign that has motivated many people; one of them is Jeremy Hayward, the Vice-chair of Compassion’s Board.  Jeremy is taking a big leap – skydiving to raise money for our ‘big move’ campaign against barren cages.  And I’ll be interviewing him soon after his daring feat to find out just how he felt hurtling through the air, arms spread, in aid of hens unable to stretch their wings. 

If you would like to learn more or sponsor Jeremy’s big leap, please click here .

And talking of hens, I’m often asked to write more about my four adopted hens.  So I’ve done just that.  Coming shortly will be a series of blog articles entitled, ‘Living with hens’, giving insights into the way they live; their likes, dislikes and antics as they go about reshaping my previously tidy garden!

A huge thanks to you and all our supporters for flying the flag for farm animals; I remain humbled and overwhelmed by your generosity and commitment.

Tags: , , , , , . Posted in Eggs & Poultry, factory farming | 1 Comment »

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Caged laying hensNocton bus advertisementFace of sow in barren pen with piglets behindLabel Rouge broiler chickens of both sexSow and piglets foraging and one piglet sucklingCute lambs running and jumpingMontbeliard cows on pasturePhilip at FAIBarren veal calf pens

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