'Export of Live Animals', by the Rt. Rev. Richard Llewellin
"The creatures man uses and, so often abuses, are voiceless and helpless. We are not. We have pens with which to write to politicians and retailers, voices with which to speak out, shopping choices which can have a major impact..., organisations to join, even, on appropriate occasions, banners to carry."
-- Rt Rev Richard Llewellin, retired Bishop at Lambeth (and previously, Bishop of Dover)
One of my favorite pamphlets put out by the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals was written by Bishop Llewellin in June, 1998. Since there is no copyright, I will share it with you, because it touches on a topic that has been weighing on my mind for the past few years.
Export of Live AnimalsBy the Rt Rev Richard LlewellinIn 1995 I accepted an invitation to conduct a church service in Dover, to which members of the congregation were invited to bring their pets. At the same time, less than half a mile away, great lorry loads of calves, destined for the cruel continental veal crates, and sheep enduring long and stressful journeys to slaughter overseas, were winding their sombre way down the hill to the docks.
When a friend pointed out that there was something not a little invidious about asking God’s blessing for well-loved and pampered pets, while looking the other way from creatures enduring profound suffering, I could not but agree. And that is how I found myself going down to the docks to address and join the protesters.
Living in apartheid South Africa helped convince my wife and me that the proper place for Christians, when injustices arise, is not among the respectable at home tut-tutting about "all those noisy people". It is out there behind a banner. Christ was not considered "respectable" when he walked this earth.
Since 1995, some aspects of live-export have changed, but others remain very much the same. The export of calves has ceased, at least temporarily, due to the BSE-inspired ban on all cattle exports. But hundreds of thousands of live sheep still pass through our docks each year, many of them on to the all too long and stressful journey to slaughter.
Despite my sympathy with the economic problems of farmers, I cannot but be glad to be spared the sight of those pitiful calves peering in bewilderment from the Dover lorries. Britain, one of Europe’s most intensively farmed countries, allows farming systems of scientifically proven cruelty, such as the battery cage for laying hens. But, even in such a climate, the veal crate system is considered so profoundly cruel that it was banned here in 1990. Recent EC legislation will ban it throughout Europe, but not, unfortunately, until 2007.
Most of the unwanted dairy calves, which would have been exported prior to the BSE ban, are now slaughtered within two or three weeks of birth. Every dairy cow is required to give birth to a calf yearly in order that she produces a permanent supply of milk and many such calves are unsuitable for rearing on for beef. (Much animal suffering lies behind the white innocence of a pint of milk!) But even such sad early slaughter is better than the veal-crate in which calves, deprived of everything, even the space to lie down comfortably, endure five months of such profound suffering that many are barely able to walk when dragged out for slaughter.
Thankfully, most of the sheep now passing through the docks will have experienced a much better life than those unfortunate calves. But do we not also owe them a humane death?
In response to public protest, legislation on animal transportation has been tightened up to a small degree – but, in reality, most legislation is largely "unpoliceable" and things have changed very little. A 1997 report by the European Parliament’s Transport Committee stresses that animals "are still being transported in abominably bad conditions."
Animals are frequently given neither food nor water, even during journeys of 30 hours or more, livestock vehicles are often overcrowded, unloading can be a brutal process on the continent and some of the lambs will end up in slaughterhouses in countries which ignore EC welfare rules.
As approximately 90% of our meat is already exported in carcass form, surely it should not be beyond the ingenuity of the meat industry to convert the remaining 10% into meat exports and spare animals this additional suffering?
We are right to protest against the export of live animals for slaughter. But not, if in doing so, we take a holier-than-thou attitude and assume that all cruelty to farm animals happens overseas. Great cruelty is endemic in most of Britain’s intensive farming systems.
The only people who can change things are we consumers. If we insist on buying only those animal products clearly labelled Free Range (or Organic, which ensures high welfare standards) farming systems will become more humane. If we do not, they will not. It’s as simple as that. Now that nutritionists have taught us that we should live largely on plant-based foods and consume only a small quantity of animal products the "can’t afford to" argument ceases to apply. As professor John Webster, head of Bristol University’s Veterinary School, writes in his recent book on animal welfare: "We tend to argue that we eat foods of animal origin because we need the protein. In fact this argument is spurious. Except in a few exceptional circumstances, we do not actually need the animal protein: we consume meat, milk and dairy products because we like them."
Live-export is only the tip of the iceberg of cruelty in modern farming. Cruel intensive systems exist because otherwise decent people, many Christians included, would rather not think about the way farm animals are treated. We tend to practise an animal apartheid system, assuming, quite incorrectly, that pigs, cattle and poultry are less in need of exercise, comfort, company and exploratory behaviour than are our pets.
Even if we lack the temperament to wave a banner against live-export, we can exercise our Christian compassion every time we step inside a supermarket by very careful choice of the most humanely reared products. I would go so far as to say that to choose battery eggs, white veal or any product known to come from a cruel rearing system is deeply unChristian.
