It would be “kinder to shoot” the hundreds of thousands of unwanted male dairy calves due to be born in Ireland this year, rather than export them to the Middle East or let them die on the farm, experts have told the Guardian. The Irish beef trade has formerly been a useful outlet for unwanted dairy calves, but demand last year was sluggish, and selective breeding increasingly means that dairy calves may not be suitable for beef anyway. The whole reason New Zealand is in the situation of killing calves at four days old is because they had the same problems with valueless male dairy calves about four years ago. “And this is the way we are going with male calves.” Calves and pigs are worth significantly less than the cost of a vet, so it can be cheaper to simply let them die. In January 2017, Ireland’s minister for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Michael Creed, reportedly told the Irish Farmers’ Association annual meeting that the live export trade was “critically important”.

Source: The Guardian January 20, 2020 12:11 UTC