In the UK, there are more than 600,000 tonnes of fish and two million land animals killed each year to fulfil our human appetite for meat. Nevertheless, many vegetarians are choosing their lifestyle out of compassion and believe that slaughtering animals for meat is inhumane and should be stopped.
Michael Kern, Craniosacral Therapy teacher and former Osteopath, has been a vegetarian for more than 45 years and believes passionately in animal welfare and protecting animal rights.
A consideration of vegetarianism and veganism is outlined in the short video attachment.
Farmed Rabbits
When most people think of animals being farmed for meat think about chickens, cattle, sheep and pigs. In the UK, there are also between two and three thousand tonnes of rabbit meat produced each year, and we import a further 5,000 tonnes from overseas. Commercial rabbit farms typically keep the animals in small wire cages, repressing their natural urges to explore and be free. The young are removed from their mothers before the end of the natural weaning period and breeding can produce as many as six litters each year. Rabbits bred for meat are typically slaughtered at just a few months old and breeding rabbits are slaughtered after three years.
An explanation of factory farming can be found in the PDF attachment to this post.
Farmed Deer
Venison is not as popular in the UK as many other kinds of meat, but there are still over 4,500 deer slaughtered for food each year within the country. Poorly farmed deer can suffer from a variety of painful diseases and conditions, including foot and mouth disease and tuberculosis. Deer bred for meat are usually killed before they reach two years of age.
Farmed Goats
Goats are bred and farmed in the UK for their meat, coats, hides and milk. Many farmed goats undergo mutilations such as being dehorned or disbudded. Around 60% of the farmed goat population in the UK is kept for milk production, of which around 75% goes to the production of goat’s cheese. Male goats are slaughtered for meat at around 12 weeks of age as they are surplus to requirements in a dairy herd.
The embedded infographic contains some facts about factory farming in the UK.
