Viva las reindeers!!!
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A UK-based animal rights group thinks Ikea deserves a lump of coal in its stocking for selling products containing reindeer meat.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) has launched a campaign urging the Swedish furniture retailer to remove the items from its shelves because of the cruelty associated with modern reindeer hunting.
Viva! campaigns manager, Justin Kerswell, said: “We are very concerned about the exploitation of wild animals for meat.
“As well as being chased from the land and air, once they are caught, their misery doesn’t end there. In Sweden, some reindeer face a gruelling journey of up to 1,000km to the slaughterhouse where they face anything but a humane end.
“More than 70 per cent of reindeer slaughtered for meat are calves that have grazed during the summer, which means they never even get to see snow.”
The group cites a 2005 study by neuroscience researchers at Uppsala University which concluded that reindeer hunting caused the animals “considerable physical and mental stress”.
Ikea responded in a statement in which it explained that using modern equipment helps keep the large reindeer herds safe from predators, and that the animals are taken to slaughter according to rules which apply to other animals in Sweden.
Missing from the story is any comment from Sweden’s reindeer herders themselves, the indigenous Sami, whose way of life — not to mention livelihood — depends to a large extent on tending to the animals known to the rest of the world as Santa’s little helpers.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I think we are all forgetting just how delicious reindeer is. which should be the only criteria when deciding whether or not to kill an animal. obviously.
December 7th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
This is so amazing that groups like Viva or Peta wants to make everybody into vegetarians. We need to remember that in the neolithic times 90% of mens diet was made of animal protein.
Lets look at our Icelandic and Japanese friends for example. They have eaten whales and seals for hundreds of years and now the E.U. tried to ban those meats saying that somehow whales are better than horses or bears( which meat is not banned from stores).
Whales are no longer in danger of extinction as they where 50 years ago.
please people, as long as animals are treated and slaughtered with dignity, there is no reason to prevent them for serving their purpose in the food chain.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Spot on both of you!
I have a friend who claims he can hear the gut-wrenching cry of agony from a carrot pulled from the earth, often before it has had the chance to grow to full maturity. All this just to be left on the side of an eight year old’s plate.
When are these veggies going to take a long look at themselves and realize they are even more barbarous than any meat eater… and they look pale, which is possibly worse.