MILLION PAWS WALK 2007 - ALV Volunteers help get the facts to the public

As ever, the Million Paws Walk was a fun walk in the park for thousands of lucky canines and their human companions. However, once again it was disgraceful to witness the RSPCA serving up other "creatures great and small" on their barbecues, and actively promoting the consumption of animals. A pall of foul smelling smoke hung over the RSPCA encampment as the flesh of pigs and other animals were scorched on the hotplates to be served as sausages and bacon.

The RSPCA is meant to be protecting all creatures great and small, not serving them up on the barbecue!

Rather than taking the opportunity to encourage the broader community to try delicious cruelty-free foods, the RSPCA shamefully promoted Otways "free-range" Pork and Pace "barn-laid" eggs. The RSPCA information booth prominently displayed a raffle to win $100 worth of pig flesh?! Of course, the RSPCA receives royalties for endorsing these companies, so it is profiteering from the very animals it should be protecting. The RSPCA's animal-friendly image and fond place in many Australians' hearts is being misused to promote the suffering and killing of animal lives, and the industry is in turn manipulating the public through the use of the "RSPCA approved" tag-line and logo.

What's wrong with RSPCA sponsorship? "Free-Range" Pork Otways very cleverly promote their products as "bred" free-range. This is true. The mother pigs have access to a large barren paddock, and the piglets remain with their mothers and the paddock for a short time. However, the piglets are then raised in enclosed shelters (with the media-savvy name of "eco-shelters") and never see the outdoors until they are trucked away to be slaughtered at the same abattoirs that kill factory-farmed pigs. Some may say this is better than a life in a concrete pen in a factory farm, but really it's just a slightly less-cruel farming method. In fact, one of the most horrible experiences witnessed by ALV president Patty Mark at an abattoir was seeing a free-range pig, who wasn't used to the concrete floors and loud banging noises experienced by factory-farmed pigs, so terrified and struggling that she was frothing at the mouth until a worker held the stunning device to her head so long that smoke poured out of her convulsing body. "Barn-Laid" Eggs 20-30,000 birds are crammed in an enclosed shed, just like broiler (chicken-meat) hens, except barnlaid hens are in there for a year instead of just six weeks. Due to the huge numbers of birds, they are unable to establish a pecking order which causes stress, and they are severely de-beaked to reduce pecking of other birds. Sick and injured birds go down and our rescue team have filmed them being eaten alive by others. In some sheds, there are electric wires to deter the birds from roosting on feeding bowls and many of them receive electric shocks. The RSPCA say they can roost, but there are not enough perches to accommodate the thousands of birds. They are killed at their prime (before 2yrs), once their egg "productivity" has declined. A hen's natural lifespan is 8 to 10 years. Additionally, for every female chick reared to lay eggs, there is an equal number of male chicks born who are of no use to the egg industry and therefore liquefied in industrial blenders at just two days old. Rather than RSPCA approval encouraging egg producers to swap to more "humane" farming methods, Pace Farms, who is Australia's largest battery egg producer, has merely found an additional market in barnlaid eggs, while recently building the largest battery-egg production facility in the southern hemisphere (West Wyalong).

It was also frustrating to see terrified ducks and sheep being chased around an enclosure by young dogs being trained to herd them on farms. The sheep were detained in a small metal pen for hours, and they looked alternately bored and scared.

Victorian Quarantine had a stall with several dogs in metal cages all day long - one has to wonder at the purpose of imprisoning these poor dogs for public display, unable to play with or relate to the thousands of other dogs passing by.

Our friendly volunteers cheerfully distributed Animal Liberation Victoria newsletters and cards directing the public to this website. Public response was mixed, with many people congratulating us for speaking out against the RSPCA's decision to cook and sell animal flesh, and further relating their own dissatisfaction with the RSPCA management. One person remarked that if the RSPCA simply offered the veggie burgers on it's menu then hungry people would try something different and encourage them to eat less meat at home.

There were also a small number of ignorant statements, largely due to people feeling embarrassed about their own lifestyle choices.

Another woman informed an ALV volunteer that she grew up on a farm, and they had always made a clear distinction between those animals who were "pets" and those who were for food, and the pets had individual names but the others were all referred to as "Freezer" so they didn't get attached to them. This perfectly illustrates the methods of thinking that people use to arbitrarily discriminate against one group, subjecting them to the most brutal treatment, yet show tenderness and love for another group of animals.

Please help to change things for the better!
Email the RSPCA and ask them to stop serving animal flesh at it's fundraising events, just as the UK RSPCA has decided to do. Also tell them it's inappropriate for them to endorse animal products such as Otways Pork and Pace Barnlaid Eggs.

Email the RSPCA:
rspca@rspcavic.org.au