HC Deb 15 April 1953 vol 514 cc205-6
Brigadier Ralph Rayner (Totnes)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the humane slaughter of pigs in places other than slaughter houses and knackers' yards; and for purposes connected therewith. I apologise for delaying the start of the Budget debate. I rise to ask the permission of the House to bring forward a small, straightforward Bill, which is supported by hon. Members of all parties, to deal with the humane slaughter of pigs outside the public abattoir. I regret to have to try to add even one small Bill to the formidable weight of laws and regulations which still afflict us; but the multiplication of backyard pigs which must follow from the freeing of feeding-stuffs makes this matter very urgent, and I feel too strongly about it to remain silent.

When last I spoke in this House about humane slaughter, the hon. Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Emrys Hughes) pointed out that as a brigadier I was a licensed slaughterer, and various hon. Members opposite who have a deep and very genuine objection to foxhunting reminded me that I was a hunting man. Certainly I am a soldier, and certainly very occasionally I still hunt the fox, but I hope on this occasion hon. Members will acquit me on the charge of hypocrisy, and allow me my opinion that the killing of domestic animals in cold blood is something apart from killing in battle or during the chase.

The domestic pig does not enjoy freedom or chance the hazards of the wild. From birth he is in every way the friend and servant of man. He provides us with our best shaving brushes, and from then on he subscribes to half a hundred articles that we may well use during the day. He provides us with our best breakfast and from then on with some of the most tasty dishes that we may have at any meal. Surely, in return, the least we can do is to see that he is efficiently and mercifully dispatched.

My wife and I keep pigs in Devon, quite a lot of them, and the more I see of the pig the more I respect him. He is naturally a clean animal if given half a chance, and when the modern pig pen has a soiling annexe he uses the lavatory a few times a day like any gentleman. Moreover, he is an intelligent animal. His cousin the wild boar, as hon. Members know, is one of the bravest and most intelligent denizens of the jungle and has often been known to see off a tiger, and the domestic pig shares in that intelligence, at any rate.

Hon. Members will have read in "The Times" the other day of the porker, fallen down a deep well, which swam round until a ladder was procured and lowered,, when he put his fore feet under one rung and his snout under another and was pulled to safety, whereupon he grunted a word of thanks and wandered off. That shows his intelligence, and so do some of the circus acts that many of us have seen. The very fact then that he is intelligent and clean makes a messy and murderous death for him all the more horrible.

If there is any question of cruelty to a dog or a cat or a horse, there is an immediate wave of public indignation and letters on the subject pile up in the Members' Post Office. But there is little public opinion about the question of humane slaughter. Domestic animals have to be killed, even little lambs, and "the less we think about it the better" is the general attitude. I do not enjoy making this speech, and hon. Members even less enjoy listening to it, but the very fact that there is no public opinion on the matter puts a responsibility on this House, I suggest, to deal with what is a scandal.

I am not going to harry the feelings of hon. Members with accounts of how innumerable pigs have met their deaths in backyards in the past and how innumerable pigs will meet their deaths in the future unless we do something about it. I am asking this House to do something about it. I am asking for leave to bring in this very short Bill for Second Reading. I may say that I have been in touch with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Food, the Federation of Meat Traders' Associations, and the Small Pig Keepers' Council, and I hope to have their blessing on the Second Reading.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Brigadier Rayner, Mr. Peter Freeman, Mr. G. Williams, Brigadier Peto, Mr. Anthony Greenwood, Sir T. Moore and Mr. Hylton-Foster.