Topic: Well that's duck off the menu

[ACE]

B@stards, Don't watch if you are easily upset.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Sky-News-Investigation-Finds-Evidence-Of-Free-Range-Ducks-Being-Abused-By-Farm-Workers/Article/201009115922412?lpos=UK_News_Right_Promo_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15922412_Sky_News_Investigation_Finds_Evidence_Of_Free-Range_Ducks_Being_Abused_By_Farm_Workers

[pumkinlover]

Thanks for making this available Ace, I've confess I only read about it, couldn't bring myself to watch the video.
I only ever buy Free range and organic meat, and like a lot of people who do it is more about the supposed welfare improvements for the animals. ??? ??? ??? ???
(I don't mind paying extra- we just eat less meat)

[ACE]

Whoa, I'm not a crusading angel, I ain't daft enough to get caught up in all that free range and organic malarky,  I just don't see any need for that sort of cruelty.

Just to prove my point about free range etc. That's what these ducks were sold as.

[pumkinlover]

So it makes it wrong on even more counts.
Horrbibly wrong to treat animals like that, and a con for "caring carnivores" as a friend describes people like us!
Any way like you I'm not a crusader... just hate to see that kind of cruelty.
Just happen to be trying Quorn tonight!!! ;)

[rosebud]

WHAT WICKED b%STARDS, THEY ARE, HOW COULD THESE SO CALLED HUMAN BEINGS BE SO CRUEL.
I JUST LOVE DUCKS, IT MAKES ME WEEP TO SEE THEM TREATED THIS WAY.  I HOPE ALL SUPERMARKETS CHECK ON ANIMAL WELFARE INSTEAD OF JUST COINING IT IN.
IF THAT IS GOOD ANIMAL WELFARE GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT THE BAD WOULD BE LIKE.  THE SCUMBAGS.

[grannyjanny]

What I can't understand is why did Waitrose announce when they were going to inspect. That's like going to visit a nursing home at the same time every day, of course the relative would be clean & well dressed. Obviously not all nursing homes need that sort of effort but it's a good way of checking.

[Ellen K]

I have just about given up eating eggs, you can't trust Free Range eggs  Even from somewhere like M&S there are always a couple in the box which are nothing like as fresh as the date on the label.  A friend worked at a free range egg farm in Worcs, the hens had a tiny mudpatch which they had little access to and every week a truck would arrive from France full of eggs with no printing on them which the farm paid cash for.

I don't know what to do - keeping a few hens seems the only way,

Terrible really.  Sky did a similar piece on a Happy Egg farm in Scotlland at the end of last year and nothing seems to have happened.

[lorna]

Have just picked up a dozen genuine free range eggs from my grandson's future Nan-in-law. Was so great to see the chickens roaming free on her 2 acre plot especially as the sun is shining. When she wasn't able to save me any as the hens had gone off lay I really missed them.

[ACE]

you can't trust Free Range eggs 

What can you trust? Organic? fair trade, free range? A lot have jumped on the bandwagon to make a few more bucks from the gullable. I don't doubt for one minute the soil association is trying to do a good job, but a lot of these organics in some shops are sold out of season, they come from places like Nigeria a place where they use growth regulators. (whats that all about), eggs come from a free range farm, but it don't mean they are actually laid by their hens. Fair trade is just another reason to put up prices.

I have a few hens because I like new laid eggs, they won't lay all year so we get some from the super market the cheapest possible, I ain't worried where they came from, but I am not getting fleeced for (free range) my clothes are more than likely made in sweatshops regardless of the retailer I purchased them from, as profit is their business. I grow a few veggies for that fresh taste, but if they need a bit of growmore to help them, so be it, they still taste nice. Chickens in batteries are a worry, but what they never had they will never miss, they get fed and watered. Cynical old sod aint I. But the reason for the initial post was there is no need for blatant cruelty, so I will  cut out the duck for dinner, unless I am lucky enough to shoot one.

[Ellen K]

My view is that there is no need for ANY cruelty in food production.  We a civilised now, we don't need to do such things.

[cornykev]

I think the flasher summed it up.     :( :( :(

[Jeannine]

Ok eck, with things like this I read the comments before I look at the video.. then I dare not see it.I can imagine though and that is perhaps best for me. I feel really really bad as I cooked a duck yesterday.

It is getting really scary out there as I am getting to the non trusting anyone point.

XX jeannine

[BarriedaleNick]

This is why I try to only buy meat and eggs from my local butcher.  He seems to know where his meat comes from - a much smaller chain of supply.  Not a complete guarantee of course but perhaps more likely to have a decent pedigree.  I'd happily buy a duck from him..
It's also a bit OTT to extrapalate one incident to the whole industry - is there any evidence that this widespread?

[valmarg]

I need to get back on this, and give some researched facts.

valmarg

[Paulines7]

Awful treatment.  I hope the RSPCA does prosecute and that those farm hands never get to work with animals again.

[shirlton]

I couldn't bring myself to look at your video Ace but then it was shown on the news last night
I have come to the conclusion that there are the good the bad and the bloody downright ugly

[telboy]

Ace,

Nothing changes mate, you know that and all subscribers to this site should know by now, that you eat what you get - but HOW you have NO IDEA!!!!

[djbrenton]

I'm another one who chose not to watch the video.

All my meat and eggs are bought direct from the farm. I see the chickens and ducks when I visit and am lucky enough to be able to buy beef ( infrequently) from 'named' cows slaughtered on the farm. Similarly any pork I buy is from a 'known' pig. I appreciate I'm lucky in affording £10 steaks etc but I'd rather pay top dollar and eat little meat with high welfare standards rather than eat more with lesser standards to save money.

It's the scale that makes the difference. How can you have a mass market organic, free range etc provided to supermarkets? Economics dictate the cutting of corners which includes welfare.

[Melbourne12]

.....

It's the scale that makes the difference. How can you have a mass market organic, free range etc provided to supermarkets? Economics dictate the cutting of corners which includes welfare.

I quite agree about the problems of scale.  The legislation, although I'm sure well-meaning, allows all sorts of ingenious ways of getting round it.  In Germany a couple of years ago, we were puzzled by a large shed which had one wall made of a heavy duty enviromesh.  When we got a chance to walk past it, we realised that it was full of chickens, stacked high on pallet racking.  If you put your face against the micromesh plastic, you could just make them out in the green gloom.

They were to all intents and purposes battery chickens.  But officially they were free range.  The micromesh meant that they were in the open air, just as if they'd been in a run bounded by chicken wire.  It was just a way of bending the rules.

Similarly in the video, I'd be much more concerned about the huge darkened shed full of ducks and the lack of general good welfare than about the four lads and their thoughtless cruelty.  Almost certainly they were casual labourers, and they clearly had no idea of what to do.  The gangmaster who provided them should be given a kicking, and told to do his job properly, and no doubt the farmer has done so, especially after he lost the contract.