“Britain is a nation of animal lovers,” writes Lucy White today in her passionate case against tolerating ritual slaughter. I don’t disagree with Ms White about the cruel nature of the production of halal and kosher meat. It is a grim business indeed. But hypocrisy emanates from a lot of criticisms of these practices.
Britain is a nation of animal lovers? To some extent. British people are sentimental about some animals. We love dogs and cats to the point that when a woman was filmed putting a cat in a bin she became a national hate figure for weeks. When it comes to other animals, though, British people can be more selective.
British people would never accept cats and dogs being kept inside with no outdoor access. Most chickens and pigs never see the outside world, and a lot of cows are being kept indoors as well. Dense confinement is stressful and frustrating. Cows and pigs, especially, are intelligent animals who like to walk and play. Even chickens like to run, jump and spar with each other. Packing them into crowded indoor spaces is indefensibly cruel.
There are more specific practices which any humane person should recognise are wrong. Farrowing crates trap mother pigs in small enclosed spaces which stop them from enjoying their natural tendency to nest — as well as, quite simply, to move. (Happily, farrowing crates are set to be banned.) The very separation of pigs and cows from their children causes grave stress.
Lucy White notes that animal abuse has been exposed in halal abattoirs. Terrible indeed. But across the UK, staff on livestock farms have been exposed for kicking animals, beating them with pipes, dragging them across the floor, slamming gates on their heads, prodding them with pitchforks and leaving them with untreated sores and injuries. This is not a Muslim problem any more than theft is the exclusive preserve of Romanians.
I suspect that most British people think farm animals are gambolling around the fields. I have happy memories of seeing cows and sheep grazing on British farms. I can see why people think a happy life followed by a quick and painless death is justifiable. But the reality for most farm animals is different. “Very little of UK pig farming is suitable for the eyes of the public,” says the veterinarian Dr. Alice Brough, and the same applies to other livestock animals.
Again, I am not denying for a moment that the “normal” means of killing animals are less inhumane than the methods used in halal and kosher slaughter. But the narrow focus on the deaths of chickens, cows, pigs and sheep seems selective. What about their lives?
I am not trying to sound judgemental here. I am a vegetarian — and I urge you to consider vegetarianism — but I eat eggs, and some dairy, and I am not pretending that the production of eggs and dairy does not entail suffering and death. But to condemn ritual slaughter in isolation makes no sense. If we think that the lives of animals have such little value that it is acceptable to pack them into closed spaces without the chance for real exercise and fun, why should their deaths be painless? We have already treated them as if their internal life has no meaning. And at least Jewish people and Muslim people have religious reasons for ritual slaughter (even if we think they are irrational). Farming farming exists because people like sausages and Peri Peri Chicken and they want them to be cheap.
The sad fact is that while we might feel as if we love animals, we don’t treat them as if we do
Livestock animals are treated better in Britain than in other countries. In China, for example, vertical factory farms sound like Hell on Earth — and that is before you get to the dog meat festivals and consumption of live fish. But you can’t claim to be husband of the year because you’re doing a better job than OJ Simpson.
The sad fact is that while we might feel as if we love animals, we don’t treat them as if we do. You can’t claim to “love” animals while imprisoning them in factory farms any more than you could claim to love your children while locking them in your basement. If Britain is a nation of animal lovers, it will have to reconsider its relationship with animal products.
