Laine et lait étroitement liés a la tuerie des animaux

500 000 agneaux vont être tués au Royaume Uni (et leurs cadavres non-utilisés pour le marché de la viande) : la laine et le lait étroitement liés a la tuerie des animaux

Up to 500,000 healthy lambs to be culled, but none for food
John Vidal, environment editor
Monday October 29, 2007
The Guardian
Up to 250,000 healthy Welsh hill lambs will be culled and incinerated in the
next few weeks to avoid a welfare disaster. The move follows restrictions
imposed during the latest foot and mouth disease outbreak and a similar cull
of up to 250,000 lambs now taking place in Scotland.
Farmers are being offered £15 a lamb by the two devolved governments to have
the animals slaughtered. Some of the Scottish lambs are being rendered to
make biodiesel fuel, but none of the 500,000 animals will go for food.
The welfare problem has arisen because foot and mouth movement restrictions
have left lambs trapped on the hillsides, and as winter approaches the grass
which they eat has started to run out. Breeding ewes need to stay in the
hills over the winter to ensure lambs for next year, and they will not have
enough to eat if this year's lambs are not removed quickly.
"The situation is not ideal. It's such a waste," said a spokeswoman for the
National Farmers' Union in Scotland. The lack of grazing meant the animals
faced starvation, she said.
The farmers' problems are made worse because the animals involved are bred
as "light lamb", to be slaughtered and eaten young. The meat is popular in
continental Europe and in the Middle East, where lamb is roasted whole, but
there is no established market for it in Britain.
The meat industry in Wales and Scotland also resisted the meat going on sale
to the public, saying it would distort an already highly distressed sheep
market. Lambs are reaching only 60p-70p a kilo at auction. The low prices
reflect growing imports by supermarkets of chilled New Zealand lamb and the
loss of exports to France. "Flooding the market with hill lambs would have
had a detrimental effect on the entire sheep business and could have had a
knock-on effect on beef," said Louise Welsh, a spokeswoman for Scottish
Quality Meat, an industry-funded body.
"We considered giving it to pensioners free for Christmas, or canning it, or
sending it to Malawi or just freezing it. But all the options were illegal
or would have distorted the market," she said.
Farm leaders in Wales and Scotland said it was not financially viable to
feed the lambs up for next year because the price of animal feed has nearly
doubled in the last year.
Animal welfare groups yesterday reacted angrily to what they saw as a
senseless waste of life. "Rather than incinerating their carcasses or using
them for biodiesel, we believe a UK market should be found for them," said
Peter Stevenson, chief policy adviser of Compassion in World Farming.
"Incinerating them sends out a message that animals are only fit for
burning," said Libby Anderson, of Advocates for Animals. "The subsidies
which have encouraged farmers to overstock with sheep have led to this
massive surplus."
The cull will cost up to £6m in Scotland and more in Wales.

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