Rainbow Ranch Farms

This is ugly, if you have a weak stomach, please do not read, how most lambs are treated before going to the dinner table.

Here is the complete and original article:

http://animalwelfaretaiwan.webs.com/sheepandlambs.htm

Before being slaughtered the infant lambs will have a number of horrific procedures carried out on them.

Remember: Always be certain that your lamb was humanely treated, before giving money to further the abuse of innocent animals, especially livestock that we use and grow for food. It is important to respect the life and harvest of all livestock.

At only a few days old all the male lambs will be castrated. Usually they will have an extremely tight plastic ring placed around their genitalia, this cuts off the blood supply and the reproductive organ subsequently withers and falls off. This is excruciatingly painful and is done with out pain killers or anesthetic. In older lambs the scrotum will be cut open and the testes extracted. This is all done to make the meat tenderer as well as to control the temperament of the child and accelerate his growth.

The babies will also have their ears tagged by piercing and under go “tail docking”, this is when the tail is either cut off or has an extremely tight plastic ring placed on it which like the castration causes the tail to shrivel and fall off. The docking is meant to prevent parasitic infections but there is little scientific evidence to suggest that it is effective.

Older sheep may also have their horns removed whilst the lambs will be disbudded. These are all agonizing and unnecessary operations often carried by non-expert staff with no sanitization or medication. Some young lambs are so terrorized by the castration that they subsequently go into shock and stop suckling, they eventually die from starvation beside their distraught mothers.