Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Making any wild animals suffer should be an offence
Pressure from the strong animal rights lobby in the UK does lead to reform, says farmer
WE’RE very lucky to have good friends in Ireland, many of whom are dairy farmers. As with farmers all over the world, we suffer the same problems – long hours exacerbated by labour problems and low prices. A lot of this price pressure in developed markets comes from the uneven power of supermarket buyers, and a Government that is happy to have low food prices to help reduce inflation.
Ireland exports much of its beef and dairy produce and envy us our larger home market. The fact that their home market is small has its origins in history. There were eight million people living in Ireland at the time of the famines, one million died and another million left for life abroad. Some 170 years later, the Irish population is still less than it was in 1846.
Although we had much common ground, I found some big differences in the farming conditions between the two countries. Like us, Irish farmers are greatly troubled by TB, but testing policy is very different. In Southern Ireland, farmers have an annual test, and if they are clear, are able to sell cattle throughout the year without any testing. Any animals born during that year can also be freely sold.
Over here, in hotspot areas, there is now six-monthly testing, and that only lasts for 60 days for cattle movements. After that time, any animal moving off farm (except for slaughter) has to be tested again, necessitating two vet visits that the farmer has to pay for. A farmer told me that in Germany, wildlife is strictly controlled. There are shooting parties to kill badgers, and in a square kilometre there are 0.3 badgers compared with 17 in the UK.
Regarding cattle movement between countries, many Irish calves are exported for the veal trade, together with live weaned calves, store and finished animals going on a long journey to the Middle East for halal slaughter. In the UK the export of live animals for slaughter is virtually nonexistent, due to intense public pressure. It would be good if this applied to all countries, rather than millions of animals suffering horrific transport and slaughter conditions.
What was a relatively small trade in export calves for veal has been wiped out here, with farmers paying for it with lower prices. It’s not wrong that live animal transport has stopped here, but it is wrong that it continues nearly everywhere else.
We have a very strong animal rights lobby in the UK, and it’s true that pressure can lead to muchneeded reform. The Hunting Act of 2004 still remains something of a hot potato – many would say a bad law. How has it affected the hunted species – red deer, foxes and hares? Are they better or worse off since the ban? A new in-depth book by Charlie
Pye Smith looks at the issue.
While hunting was hated and vilified by the RSPCA and many others, it did act to keep a healthy balance in the fox population, taking out injured and weaker animals and providing a closed season of four months’ duration for breeding. Hunts were not very effective fox killers; before the ban, they accounted for around 20,000 foxes a year. It could also be said that while hunting was legal, farmers were more likely to tolerate a few foxes on their land. There now seems to be a lack of respect for the fox.
When hunting was banned in 2004, it coincided with a vast increase in organised shoots where each shoot might account for 300 foxes annually. In the Tiverton area shoots have increased from three to 40 for example; in Gloucestershire
from ten to 65. Organised shooting is now very big business, a “gun” might have to pay £16,000 for a day’s shooting, so gamekeepers are under intense pressure to control foxes. Where there is persecution all year round, suckling vixens may be killed, and her cubs may starve. It’s perfectly legal for foxes to be snared and poisoned.
Highly efficient night vision equipment can spot a fox from a half-mile away, its red eyes making it an easy target. The practise of “lamping” for sport with shotguns can leave many wounded foxes to face a slow death from injury and gangrene. Certainly in our area, shooting is common and foxes have vastly declined over the years, so that it’s now rare to see any.
Some estates have killed all their hares to avoid illegal hare coursing which is now big business where
betting on the outcome can take place from all over the world. The gangs involved are both violent and intimidating. This activity has increased since the Hunting Act.
Charlie Pye Smith suggests that a solution might be for the introduction of a law that makes it a criminal offence to cause unnecessary suffering to any wild animal. That seems like a good idea!
can be ordered at
Ro Collingborn is a Wiltshire dairy farmer and has been dairy chairman of the Women’s Food and Farming Union, on the Milk Development Council, the Veterinary Products Committee, the RSPCA Council and a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust director.