SC - Re: Veal Longings

[Jenne Heise]

> What I have seen in central Pa are calves in a plastic hut about 6 x 6 with
> a fenced in area about the same size.  Presumably they are veal calves.

Nope, they often are not.  The calves being raised in those plastic huts
are generally young heifer calves (the ones that grow up to be milch
cows), though young steers for home consumption are sometimes raised that
way too. The smaller calves are kept in enclosures with 'calf houses'-- a
similar arrangement to that used for 'outside' dogs. Older calves are
moved to bigger group pens. (I know that to non-farm humans, keeping
calves outside in an open shed looks cruel, but it isn't-- it's what they
are used to. If they grew used to an all-barn life, they would have
difficulty adapting later.)

The news stories you are thinking of are not referring to those little
plastic huts, but to actual small cages, too small for the animal to turn
around in. And yes, they are a good reason not to eat veal. 

'Milk-fed' veal, the kind most prized, is the flesh of calves who were
never weaned-- the calves you see in the huts are in the process of being
weaned.

- -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"Our kingdom is a garden and such gardens are not made/By singing "Oh how
beautiful!" and sitting in the shade..." --Kipling, "Glory of the Garden"