Veal cruelty

The recent BBC documentary on the subject of transporting unwanted male calves to the continent was harrowing.

Calves naturally suckle their mothers for up to a year and maintain a strong bond with her for several years.

In commercial dairy farming, the calves are removed from their mother within hours of birth, causing severe distress to both the cow and her offspring.

Anyone who has heard a cow bellowing for her lost calf will be left in no doubt about the extent of her distress.

Some will keep revisiting the place where they gave birth, searching in vain for the missing calf and calling loudly.

A human faced with having her child forcibly removed from her would react in exactly the same way.

There is no ‘humane’ way of separating these mothers from their young. Nor is there any humane way of transporting the calves, packed together in trucks which transport them hundreds of miles to their deaths in slaughter houses. As long as there is a market for veal, this cruelty will continue

CAROLYN TAYLOR Broughty Ferry, Dundee