Meat eaters are turning a blind eye to the cruelty involved in producing meat

The appearance of a sheep and her new-born lambs on The Late Late Show last week generated much controversy . Sadly, as is usually the case when farm animal abuse is discussed, much of the coverage on mainstream and social media has turned into the facile ‘urban versus rural’ debate.

You wouldn’t need to be an animal behaviourist to know that the last place these lambs should have been last Friday night was a hot, brightly lit TV studio in Dublin 4. Welfare concerns about this newly developed machine aside, if the animals’ welfare had been considered at all, then surely their use to demonstrate this machine could have been filmed on the farm and then subsequently discussed on the show.

While I fully appreciate the upset and concern expressed by many people for those animals, the harsh reality is that pinning lambs in this device is nowhere near the worst husbandry technique employed by farmers who farm extensively. And that’s not to mention the methods used in the intensive farming systems used to produce pig meat, chicken meat, and eggs.