Welfare of Calves (Export) (Hansard, 12 June 1991)

§ Mr. Chris Mullin (Sunderland, South)

I beg to move, That leave he given to bring in a Bill to prohibit the export of calves where, after such export, they are to be kept in conditions which would be unlawful in Great Britain—notably, in veal crates. The Bill clears up an anomaly that has arisen since the Welfare of Calves Regulations came into force on 1 January last year. Of all the cruelties devised for the rearing of farm animals, the veal crates system is one of the most repugnant.

Infant calves are removed from their mother at the age of one or two days—a process that involves extreme distress to both—and within about a week they are sent to market. There then follows a gruelling journey to ports such as Harwich or Dover, a sea journey to the European mainland, and a further road journey. Some calves come from as far away as Scotland or Wales and some will not survive the journey. Those who do not are lucky.

Once the calves arrive at their destination, a terrible fate awaits them. They are put into a veal crate, a solid wooden box just big enough for the young animal to stand or lie down but not to turn around. As the calf grows larger it will not even be allowed to lie down in the normal, stretched-out position. It will remain in the crate for the rest of its short, miserable life of about 26 weeks. Throughout that time, it either stands or lies on the slatted wooden floor. It is given no straw or other bedding material because, were it to eat the straw its flesh might turn into a healthy red whereas European consumers want their veal to be pale pink—to such an extent that it is referred to as "white veal".

To achieve that, the calf is denied not only the roughage and fibre that it craves but is fed throughout its life on an all-liquid diet of milk powder mixed with water. The iron content is kept deliberately low in a further attempt to keep the flesh pale. Many calves are reckoned to be anaemic by the time they are slaughtered. In a desperate attempt to eat fibre, the poor animal licks at its wooden crate and its own hair. The post-mortem examination of a veal calls stomach often reveals balls of hair, which is evidence of the animal's futile attempts to feed itself with the fibre denied by its human owners.

Anyone who has ever seen calves playing in a field will know how beautifully they play together. These unfortunate animals glimpse other calves only at feeding time—once or twice a day when the front of their crates are opened to allow them to drink their miserable rations from a bucket. As they grow up in their crates, those deprived creatures are subject to infectious diseases of the respiratory and digestive systems. To control the infections they are often given repeated doses of antibiotics. As the calves grow larger, the calf shed often gets hotter and they frequently experience heat stress.

910 As long ago as 1981, the Select Committee on Agriculture described that system of rearing calves as "abhorrent". But it was not until the introduction of the Welfare of Calves Regulations in 1987 that veal crates were finally banned in this country. Even that ban did not come into force until 1 January last year. Although veal crates are banned in Britain, British farmers currently export about 1,000 calves a day to be reared in Europe in the very system we have outlawed here. Moreover, much of the meat—some 40 per cent. —is re-imported to this country. Last year, we exported 345,700 calves, mostly to the Netherlands and France, where the veal crate is in widespread use.

Under the Bill, that trade will be illegal. Some people will say that we have no choice because the treaty of Rome obliges us to submit those animals to lifelong degradation. I disagree; article 36 of the treaty enables a member state to impose restrictions on exports or imports where those can be justified on grounds of public morality or public policy, or on grounds of the protection of health and life of animals or humans.

If ever there was a case for taking a stand on grounds of morality, this is it. I look forward to the day when British Ministers go to Brussels, as they are about to do in the case of sow stalls, and take the initiative in persuading the EC to outlaw veal crates throughout the EC. I am confident that a Labour Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food would do that.

Unlike you, Mr. Speaker, I am not a vegetarian, but the more that I find out about the way in which our farm animals are treated, the less meat I can bring myself to eat. I know that many people of all political persuasions take the same view. There is a growing revulsion in Britain against the way in which farmers and meat manufacturers rear meat. Farmers and meat manufacturers ignore that revulsion at their peril.

The Bill is only one of a number of recent measures designed to restore some morality to the meat industry. It has the support of hon. Members on both sides of the House and I commend it to the House.