Mass slaughter for our festive pleasure

AMID the feelings of warmth and generosity and the frenzy that is so much a feature of Christmas, we should spare a thought for the animals and birds sacrificed in astronomical numbers for our festive pleasure.

Spare a thought for the pig which has such a short life (about six months) on a factory farm. It lives (if that’s the right word) and dies abruptly so that we can have our fill.

Think of the hundreds of millions of factory-farmed turkeys worldwide. All have short, stressful lives that will have been sacrificed in the months leading up to Christmas in order that we may enjoy the season to the fullest.