Request To Indian People From Vegetarians Of World

Author(s): Young Indian Vegetarians
Publisher: Young Indian Vegetarians

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DR. ALAN LONG, VEGETARIAN SOCIETY OF U.K..
ROUTINE MUTILATIONS PRACTISED ON BRITISH FARM ANIMALS
The modern livestock rearer is not content with yields from wild animals domesticated and kept in some sort of confinement. Cash flows and the need for a constant output, over-riding natural cyclical processes, require intensified methods of rearing, raising of prolific breeds, perhaps ill-equipped for the severity of inclement conditions to which they are not fully adapted. On the British hills, for instance, ewes bred to lamb early in the year to catch a more lucrative market may succumb to the rigors of a severe winter, in which as many as 1 in 5 of the flock may die of exposure and neglect. Such breeding leads to travesties and plays merciless tricks on the animals' maternal instincts. It stimulates the breeding of these competitors for the world's food-supplies while human populations are prudentaly urged to control their numbers. The British cow of today averages a milk-yield double the output of the milch-cow of the half-a-century ago, she in turn was producing up to 5 times the yields of an animal in the wild. The sow has been exploited similarily. In the wild she would produce an annual farrowing of 3 or 4 piglets. She is now induced by drugs and tricks of feeding and rearing to farrow 5 times in 2 years, with 10 or 12 piglets in each litter. The pig-farmer has therefore as many as 25 young animals to fatten every year, whereas the cattlerearer may have only one - and then of the wrong sex for his purposes. Intensive pig-rearing, with relatively low demands on care and stockmanship, has therefore gained adherents, although the nuisances caused by the pollution has driven some local authorities to impose restraints. Sow and cow fall victim of this exploitation and the consequent overproduction disease. The sow lasts about 2 years in regimens of pregnancy, birth, reimpregnation, and pregnancy again. Weaning being accomplished prematurely. The average British Cow is culled before she can begin her 4th lactation, mastitis, lameness, liver-disorders or reproductive failures having taken their toll.
At the livestock-market sheep and cattle that "grade" (meet certain requirements of conformation) attract subsides for the farmer. As a means of preventing dishonest merchants from collecting further disbursements of "luckmoney", a piece is punched out of the ears of such animals. This mutilation is widely condemned by animal welfarists, and could be avoided by grading carcases, i.e. on the hook rather than on the hoof, which would be more reliable too. The conditions of the market causes the animals much-distress. They too attract widespread condemination: