BBC Slammed for Slaughter of Baby Animals Stunt
TV licence fees help pay for bloodshed
Viva!, Britain’s leading vegetarian campaigning group has condemned the BBC for plans to slaughter baby animals on air during the second series of the controversial, Kill It, Cook It, Eat It*.
The BBC3 TV show – due to air later in the year – will show the killing of baby lambs, piglets, goats and veal calves in front of a live studio audience. Viva! was one of the many animal welfare groups that condemned the network for showing a biased and sanitised version of the slaughter process during the first series. Viva! is calling on the BBC to halt production of the series before it starts.
“It is important for people to know where their food comes from,” says Viva! Campaigns Manager Justin Kerswell. “Viva! welcomed a previous BBC documentary that showed undercover footage from within a working slaughterhouse, but if this series is anything like the last one it will be a complete whitewash.
“The first series of Kill It, Cook It, Eat It, advertised itself as balanced look at how we slaughter animals, but it was anything but. Millions of the one billion animals slaughtered in the UK each year suffer pain and fear when they are improperly stunned before slaughter and may fail to lose consciousness at all, facing a violent and terrifying death.
“BBC licence fee payers have to ask themselves if they are happy for their money to go towards paying for the slaughter of baby animals for entertainment. If the program makers were really interested in showing the reality of slaughter they would film the conveyor belt of misery and pain inside just one of Britain’s many industrial abattoirs.”
Video footage shot by Viva! inside UK abattoirs shows animals being stunned for as little as 2 seconds and regaining consciousness as they bleed to death. Clearly conscious sheep and pigs are shown struggling violently as they hang from shackles on the slaughter line.
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