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Saturday 13 December, 2008

Where Angels fear to tread: Factory Farming

Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania (AACT) will be holding a cruelty free BBQ on Saturday the 13th of December in Franklin Square from 11.30am – 1.00pm. AACT will also be giving out information on factory farming and encouraging people to have a cruelty free Christmas. AACT will also be joined by pig ambassador Elsie the piglet.

Christmas is traditionally a time of happiness and sharing. It is a time when people tend to display greater kindness and compassion towards each other. Members of AACT believe that people need to extend this kindness and compassion to all living creatures.

“Christmas time, especially, is a time when people tend to be kinder and more compassionate, but it doesn't always extend to the animals that end up in people's shopping trolleys. Millions of animals raised in intensive farms will have endured lives of great suffering before they end up on the Christmas table. People seem to forget that the neatly packaged smoked ham that they are buying was once a living pig and that the chicken carcass in the freezer section was once a living chicken. Meat chickens are carefully bred to gain weight in an incredibly short period of time. Often this weight gain is so great, that the chicken is unable to support its body and ends up crippled. Turkeys, battery hens, pigs and fish also endure a life of confinement and suffering”. Said Jennifer Beer, Executive Officer, Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania.

Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania is encouraging people to make ethical choices about the food they consume during Christmas celebrations. This message is also being supported by Animals Australia in their current “Lucy Speaks” Christmas radio advertising campaign. Radio listeners around Australia, including Tasmania, have been hearing the voice of a young child called ‘Lucy’ describing the suffering that she is enduring. It is not until the end of the commercial that it becomes clear that ‘Lucy’ is a pig. What ‘Lucy’ describes is the horrific life endured by thousands of breeding sows in factory farms throughout Australia.

Ms Beer further stated:

“In intensive farming systems, animals are raised in ways that are commercially beneficial, not beneficial for the animals. The factory farming industry works hard to ensure that people remain unaware of what goes on behind closed doors. Most people would probably not choose to cause suffering to an animal, especially if they were aware of what the animal they are eating was forced to endure during its life. As Sir Paul McCartney said, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian”. Said Ms Beer.

AACT will also be joined by the Women’s Song Choir: Voices for Peace who will perform some traditional Christmas Carols and AACT’s version of The 12 Days of Christmas.

For more information:
Contact: Jennifer Beer 0408 970 359
(Executive Officer, Against Animal Cruelty Tasmania)