DAIRY farmers have gone into very public mourning over the BSE-related killing of thousands of calves less than ten days old, whose remains are to be incinerated rather than being eaten.
Normally, 500,000 of these calves are off-loaded every year to continental veal farms. Because of BSE, the veal outlet has been closed and UK farmers are now faced with a massive surplus. The calves are being slaughtered en masse, not because they are inedible, but because farmers don't want the market flooded and, as a result, a price slump for all beef products.
What makes the whole business so detestable is that it is driven by the commercial desire to produce vast quantities of milk and other dairy products - of which there is already a European surplus.
The best way to minimise animal abuse is for consumers to consider non-animal food alternatives. For free details, please send a large sae to Animal Aid, The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1AW.
ANDREW TYLER, Director, Animal Aid, Tonbridge, Kent.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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