SLAUGHTER OF NEWLY BORN CALVES

That this House is opposed to the Calf Processing Aid Scheme, under which over ??100 is paid for each male dairy calf and ??128 for each male beef calf which is slaughtered when it is less than 21 days old; notes that this scheme has nothing to do with eradicating BSE; believes it is ethically unacceptable for newly-born calves to be slaughtered en masse when they have known almost no life at all; notes that over 360,000 calves have been slaughtered since this scheme was established in April 1996; is concerned that many calves are being transported on long journeys to distant slaughterhouses rather than being sent to a slaughterhouse near the farm of birth; believes that dairy bull calves should neither be slaughtered under this scheme nor exported for rearing in continental veal crates but should instead be reared in the United Kingdom to supply the lower end of the beef market hitherto filled by the older cull cows whose meat is now excluded from the food chain; and urges Her Majesty's Government to abandon the calf slaughter scheme as it involves treating calves as unwanted waste products rather than as sentient beings capable of feeling pain and fear.