News & Media: Troubling farm footage of dying goats goes viral
Troubling farm footage of dying goats goes viral
Footage has gone viral this week – and be warned, it’s not very pleasant – of baby goats being slaughtered on a farm.
They are killed because they are male, and therefore of no use to the dairy farm, which produces goats milk.
The footage is particularly disturbing because the person handling the baby animals seems so careless; he simply shoots them and discards them in a pile, as if they’re little more than garbage.
The whole scene is a torturous reminder that our food chain is a grisly one.
This is something many Australians are finding increasingly difficult to reconcile…
We’re a nation of animal lovers, after all. We’ll spend thousands of dollars to add a mixed-breed mutt to our homes, and then provide said fur-kid with the very best veterinary care money can buy.
We dote, we love, we shower our pets with affection.
Then we sit down at night to eat a juicy steak, or knock back three milky coffees per day, and we try not to think about what was involved in bringing that animal produce to the table.
The flip side to this coin is that we want to support our dairy farmers. They’re hard-working and resilient and have weathered so many storms – both literally and figuratively – and the Australian public wants to be right to them.
Footage like this serves to muddy the waters somewhat.
Animals rights charity Aussie Farms, which aims to “end commercialised animal exploitation” in Australia, says greater transparency is needed.
“This confronting footage is yet another example of an industry with zero transparency or laws to properly govern it,” says director of Aussie Farms, Chris Delforce.
“Everything shown in this footage is completely legal under our current legislation. Victoria’s farm animal welfare laws are inadequate, with codes of practice that are only voluntary to abide by.”
He adds, “Consumers are being deceived by the animal agriculture industry. They deserve to know the truth and we will continue to expose it. We won’t stop until the cruelty does.”
