Many Irish farmers view the animal welfare lobby as a grouping that is totally anti-farming, but is this really the case?
‘Save the suckler sector’ has been the clarion call of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and other farming organisations over the past year and more.
And I sense it is a phrase that could gather much greater momentum should the Irish government make any move at all to introduce a ‘cull’ of farm animals as part of the country’s response to climate change.
National herd
Now I am not inferring that a cull is on the cards, by no means. But it is an issue that has gained a fair bit of traction in the public domain over recent times.
And, of course, the term cull does not simply refer to the removal of cows – dairy and suckler – that have long passed their sell by dates.
No, we are also talking about the potential removal of young, breeding animals that are in their prime with their most productive years ahead of them.
So much for the background. Meanwhile, Ireland’s animal welfare organisations, who rank amongst the most media savvy groups on this planet, have not felt it necessary to get involved in the ‘cull’ debate. I wonder why?
Animal welfare
It strikes me that the untimely – and wholly unnecessary – death of a young dairy cow is as much a welfare-related issue as is the destruction of any other animal, wild or domestic.
Members of animal welfare groups think nothing of rampaging around pig, poultry and other livestock farms.
These actions achieve nothing other than destroying people’s livelihoods and escalating the stress levels of the animals that they encounter during their so-called ‘protests’.
I truly believe that every animal has the right to be humanely treated during its lifetime. And cutting short the period of a farm animal’s productive life, in my opinion, is an extremely grievous act with extremely strong welfare-related implications.
And let’s be clear about this, other countries in the EU have introduced animal culls already on wholly environmental grounds, the Netherlands being a case in point.
Environmental management
I would be more than interested to hear the views of animal welfare groups on the possible use of animal culling as an environmental management tool.
The same people are more than happy to grab every microphone they can get their hands on when it comes to protesting about any kind of wildlife cull.
The question is – would they be as keen to stand up for the interest of farm animals if it was a case of their untimely death being approved, as some form of response to the challenge of climate change?