VEAL

Do you enjoy eating VEAL? do you know what veal is? It is the meat of a baby calf that has been starved to death so that the meat is pale pink, almost white. It is served in most Five Star Hotels, and can be bought at certain supermarkets . The VEAL calf industry is among the worst of all kinds of intensive animal agriculture. It is literally a fate far worse than death.

Male calfs are taken from their mothers one or two days after birth. They are chained inside tiny crates barely larger than their bodies and are kept in total darkness. During their brief lives, they never see the sun or touch the earth. They never see or taste grass. Their muscles ache for freedom and exercise. They long for maternal care.....

About 14-16 weeks after their birth, they are slaughtered. The Calfs home is a VEAL crate, a wooden restraining device that is so small (22 inches by 54 inches) that the calves cannot turn around. Designed to prevent any movement, the crate does its job of atrophying the calves' muscles, THUS PRODUCING TENDER "GOURMET" VEAL.

Imagine if you had to sit in one position for months without being able to move at all. The calves also suffer from open sores caused by the constant rubbing against the crates. There is no bedding on which they lie, simply hard wood. They will never walk again. In fact, they will never stand again except when they go for slaughter - and by then they are so weak their limbs have become useless. These are little babies who will never see even one year of life. Have never romped and played, have never seen another calf or anyone- just a big bottle of forcible feed mush which is shoved into their throat every few hours and injections that pierce their skin regularly to make them fatter and keep them alive. They cough all the time and their faeces comes out in painful streams dirtying their nether parts.

The calves are fed a high fat liquid feed intentionally lacking in iron and other essential nutrients. This diet keeps the animals anaemic and creates the pale pink or white colour considered desirable in VEAL. Craving iron, the calves lick urine-saturated salts and any metallic parts of their stalls. Farmers also withhold water from the animals, who, always thirsty, are driven to drink the disgusting slop the feed is.

Because of such extremely unhealthy living conditions and food, the calves soon develop chronic pneumonia and constant diarrhoea. Consequently, they are given massive doses of antibiotics and other drugs just to keep them alive. The antibiotics are passed onto the consumers in the meat.

That's not all that's passed along. Most international veal production companies give calves 'clenbuterol' , a dangerous and illegal drug that speeds growth and increases anaemia in the calves, producing more expensive white meat. Calves treated with 'clenbuterol' can be sold for slaughter at 12 to 13 weeks of age, rather than the standard 16 weeks. Even trace amounts of 'clenbuterol' can cause severe illness in humans, including increased heart rate, tremors, breathing difficulties, fever and even death.

In 1996 the EU voted to ban the VEAL crate across Europe, but the veal industry said they would suffer economically, so it will be phased out and removed in the year 2007 only. Yet the trade will continue to thrive in various other countries.

People who eat veal basically are eating the pale and tender meat of a very sick baby cow who was tortured to death. They are also eating antibiotics and hormones that kept the baby alive long after its body had given up. The meat is so white because there are NO nutrients in it. It is senseless food eaten by the senseless and savoured for its colour and chewability rather than any intrinsic merit.

Surely, if a person is paying soooo much money for the meal, he must want something in exchange: Apart from drugs and cancer????

Don't buy veal, and tell friends, neighbours and relatives why