§ 14. Mr. Huntasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will make a statement on the recent trials which have taken place at Government-run experimental farms on the intensive rearing of lambs.
§ Mr. John MackieTrials on the rearing of lambs with, and without, their mothers and the rearing of one lamb of a twin are being undertaken on three of the Ministry's experimental husbandry farms.
The results so far obtained do not seem to have much commercial significance yet.
§ Mr. HuntAlthough we can be grateful for that reply, is the hon. Gentleman aware that the thought of lambs being enclosed in indoor pens from birth until slaughter 13 or 14 weeks later is repugnant to most British people? Is it not particularly unfortunate that the Government themselves appear to be a party to this kind of inhumanity?
§ Mr. MackieThe hon. Gentleman is making gross exaggerations. I would almost commend to him a cartoon in Punch where a passer-by was shown looking at shepherds pulling dead sheep out of a snowdrift and the caption was, "Have you not a nice warm battery to put them in?". When one thinks of the appalling loss of ewes and lambs last winter, any alternative method of rearing lambs is worth investigation, if nothing else.