From the December 1987 edition of
Agscene - journal of
Compassion In World Farming:
Dying for Christmas is the article contributed to the Choose
Cruelty-Free This Christmas magazine by CIWF. It is reproduced here to
summarise for both regular and new readers of Agscene the cruelty of the
Christmas turkey trade and the suffering of pigs in factory farms.
For many years CIWF has attempted to highlight the fact that
Christmas should be a time of goodwill to all living creatures - not
just to man. As part of this campaign we have always asked people to
boycott the traditional Christmas dinner for a meatless alternative.
Recipes for an alternative and humane Christmas dinner are given both in
the Choose Cruelty-Free This Christmas magazine and on the CIWF
Christmas leaflet. We hope that by joining together with BUAV, Lynx and
The Vegan Society this Christmas that our message will be received by a
new and wider audience and that the campaign will result in more people
deciding to celebrate Christmas without cruelty.
September
The first decorations are in the shops already. It gets earlier every
year. What we can't see, however, are 13 million young chicks in
gigantic turkey factories. They're discovering that their world is four
walls and a ceiling. It's lit by dim electric light. And it's a little
too crowded for comfort.
Several million piglets are busy discovering their new world. The
world of the factory farm. Bars and wire, cages and crates. Their
mothers are imprisoned, unable to turn round, exercise or tend them. By
the end of the month their piglets will have been castrated and had
their tails cut off. Without anaesthetic.
October
We're buying our first Christmas presents to avoid the crush later.
Cards have already gone off to relatives overseas. More shop window
decorations. Families are busy arranging who's going to stay with whom
and which party to go to.
But it's starting to stink in the turkey factories. And it's getting
really crowded. There's up to 20,000 birds in each shed
and what little space there was is almost gone. They're climbing over
each other and squabbling, but they can't hurt each other. The farmer
has chopped off their beaks with a red hot guillotine. And that stink. .
. the throat burning stench of ammonia from a quagmire of rotting turkey
litter.
The piglets have gone off to new prisons - walled pens with mesh
floors and battery cages, just like those used for battery chickens.
It's dark, so dark. The factory farmer has doused the lights to stop
them fighting from boredom - that uses up valuable fat.
The next time they see the light will be the time they die. They've
also lost their mothers. The sows have been put into sow stalls - pens
only a few feet wide. They stand on bare concrete, awaiting the next
litter. Many are chained to the floor for good measure, but none can
move in any event. They spent up to 40 weeks of the year like that.
Standing and waiting.
November
Humans are fighting for space in car parks, shops and supermarkets.
Turkeys are fighting - literally fighting for space down on the factory
farm. The stench . . . It's so bad the factory farmer has to wear a
mask. The birds' legs vanish amid the stinking litter. Many are burned
on their hocks by the ammonia.
The piglets, now nearly full-grown, have been moved into concrete
floored pens. Their instincts to root about and explore are completely
frustrated. Life has no purpose. They wander in circles, looking at each
other, looking at the walls, wondering why it's so very dark and grow
fatter.
December
Presents have been bought, wrapped and hidden. The drinks cabinet is
overflowing, the cupboards bulge with food. There's booze-ups aplenty in
the pub, office and livingroom. We're all having a ball. Up go the
decorations, in come the relatives and out come the nuts and dates..
Happy Christmas!
Meanwhile, millions of turkeys and pigs are being killed. On the
factory farm their blood is spilled the fortnight before the peace and
goodwill of Christmas Day. The turkeys are stuffed - stuffed into crates
on lorries and driven to the slaughterhouse. Some break legs and wings
in the process, but it'll soon be over in any event. Once there the
birds are hung upside down on a conveyor belt, their heads pass through
an electric stunning bath and their throats are cut by an automatic
knife. Many miss the stunning bath, some miss the knife. All end up in a
scalding tank, a few will be boiled alive.
The pigs have just seen the light as they're loaded on lorries bound
for the abattoir. It's the first natural light they have ever seen. And
the last. At the slaughterhouse terror grips them. They sense something
dreadful is awaiting them. They're right. Electric tongs stun them,
they're hung upside down and have their throats slit. The place is
redder than Santa's coat, but then that's Christmas.
Boxing Day
Well, it's all over for another year. The turkey was a bit tough, the
pork was OK, but we all had a great time, didn't we? So this is what
they mean by peace and goodwill to all Men. But isn't it time that the
Christmas spirit of friendship and celebration was extended to animals -
all year round? Their misery is not confined to Christmas - they're
imprisoned on factory farms 365 days a year, living in cages or tiny
crates, deprived of movement, exercise, fresh air, of everything that
makes their lives worth living.
It doesn't have to be that way. There are alternatives. Alternatives
of a cruelty-free diet based on non-animal or free range products. It
simply takes a small decision - a vote with your shopping bag. If you
don't like the cruelty, then don't support it.
C.L.
"On this earth animals are our brothers and sisters; we should
treat them with the same love." Spike Milligan
Reproduced with Thanks.
