For a politician often criticised as being insensitive and a shade too clever for comfort, William Waldegrave, the Agriculture Minister, has displayed admirable political dexterity in his handling of the latest debate on animal rights and wrongs. Confronted with revelations that calves from his own farm are exported to the Continent, where the crate-rearing and force-feeding on a liquid diet banned in Britain since 1990 are still widespread, Mr Waldegrave quickly divined the uses of adversity. He has argued that a review of the use of veal crates be brought forward from autumn 1997 to this year. He has also issued a strong plea for the banning of the method in all EU countries.
British sympathy for animals is increasingly becoming the basis for legislation. New rules which came into force yesterday in the UK make it a criminal offence for those transporting animals to divert from an approved journey plan, making the existing legislation on this point more readily enforceable. The strong pressure in Europe brought by the government to bear over veal-production was prompted to a great extent by the Shoreham protests.
The question of how humans treat animals is exerting a greater pull on our sensibilities, particularly among the middle-classes and the young. Some concerned citizens are acting in the humanist spirit of compassion. Other more radical activists claim that animals have "rights" akin to human ones. The alliance between them occasionally reinforced by the violent and the bored is likely to produce more Shorehams and Brightlingseas in the future.
Mr Waldegrave will never satisfy every protester. The RSPCA will continue to campaign for a unilateral ban on export of veal calves from Britain: the Minister is right to resist the superficial appeal of such a move, even though it would find much favour. To do otherwise would cancel our leverage with other countries when they seek to exempt themselves from agreed rules of co-operation.
The calves' plight points to one of the central dilemmas within the EU. On the one hand, the organisation is supposed to level agricultural structures in the member countries to encourage fair practice. On the other, it is intended to stimulate trade, which thrives on competitive advantage. Such an advantage exists in countries with a higher tolerance of cruelty to animals.
With veal production, there does, happily, seem to be a way out. An EU study has concluded that banning of the rearing of calves in crates would have no impact on the economies affected and the meat, albeit of a different quality, can still be produced without resort to such methods. But this is an exception rather than a rule in meat production, especially in the luxury market. Bitter battles over what end up when and how on the discerning plates of Europe lie ahead. Even nimble Mr Waldegrave may not find these so easy to divert.
