MP Neil Parish’s call for a red meat month to balance celebrations for vegans and vegetarians, drew an angry response from the animal rights group PETA.
Mr Parish, a farmer and the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, dismissed their letter to him – describing him as ‘out of touch’ – and pointed out that millions of Britons enjoy red meat but there is no formal event to mark its importance to the economy and the countryside.
Mr Parish is hoping to initiate a red meat month at the Palace of Westminster and has won support for the project from leader of the house William Hague.
Below is the letter in full from PETA:
“Dear Mr Parish,
Thank you for your letter. We understood your point but not your position. Every month is “red meat month”, from the government subsidies given to meat and dairy farmers to the multi-billion pound corporations that promote their cruel and harmful products.
The point of World Vegan Month is to promote an alternative voice to those of the meat and dairy industries that saturate our billboards, airwaves and more.
You write that “it is only fair that we should have a ‘Red Meat Month'” – but fair to whom? Certainly not animals. Nor to starving people around the world who could use the grains we inefficiently funnel through animals, producing only a fraction of the food we could eat as primary proteins. Nor the Britons suffering from heart disease and strokes who need to hear that red processed meat has been conclusively linked to an increased risk of developing these and other maladies. The logic against eating animals is irrefutable.
Along with safeguarding the human population and the planet, adopting a plant-based diet would spare billions of animals the horrors of the meat, egg and dairy industries.
In the UK, even in what are considered the industry’s best conditions, calves’ horns may be gouged out and piglets have the tips of their teeth and their tails cut off without any pain relief.
Chickens live in cramped cages or in filthy sheds and are denied everything that is natural and important to them. Dairy cows have their babies torn away from them shortly after birth. Many of the male calves, deemed useless by the industry, are shot at birth or sold for veal, while the females are destined for the same sad cycle as their mothers.
They are artificially impregnated, have their babies stolen from them, and are treated like milk machines until their bodies are spent and they are sent to slaughter.
All “British” animals used for food endure the terror of transportation and are strung up and have their throats slit, often while they’re still conscious.
Our recently released video shows that shocking abuse of animals occurs on farms and in abattoirs that claim to have the highest standards – including those with Red Tractor and Freedom Food certifications.
And then there’s the environment.
By preventing the growth of trees and other deep vegetation on Britain’s arable land where cows and sheep currently graze and compacting the soil, we are causing a cycle of floods and drought, sometimes drowning usable land downstream.
A 2006 United Nations report, Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options, concluded that the meat industry is “one of the top two or
three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”.
And when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently held a news conference to discuss what people can do to decrease their contribution of greenhouse gases, one of the key recommendations was to stop eating meat.
If we are ever to create a cleaner – and kinder – world fit to support the many billions of us on this planet, we can’t carry on the way we are going. Another 2010 UN report titled Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Production and Consumption: Priority Products and Materials states that “[i]mpacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth” and that “a substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products”.
So if you’re truly concerned about “how we feed a world population that will reach nine billion by 2050 using existing agricultural land whilst minimising our impact on the natural environment”, then put your money where your mouth is and go vegan.
Sincerely yours,
Mimi Bekhechi
Director, PETA
Source: The Western Morning News