CALF PROCESSING AND SCHEME

That this House is opposed to the Calf Processing Aid Scheme, under which around ??80 is paid for each male dairy calf and around ??100 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; further notes that the scheme does not permit the meat from the calves to be used for food as the scheme's sole purpose is to remove so-called surplus calves from the market; 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 950,000 calves have been slaughtered since this scheme was established in April 1996; is concerned that many calves have been transported on long journeys to distant slaughterhouses rather than being sent to a slaughterhouse near the farm of birth; believes that 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.