Animal Welfare: Methods of Slaughter

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

I declare an interest in that I was a member of the Farm Animal Welfare Council, although not at the time of the report that the noble Lord, Lord Trees, referred to. I thank the noble Lord for raising this important subject, which we all recognise arouses the strongest feelings. Mahatma Gandhi is reported to have said, “The measure of a civilisation is how it treats its weakest members”. Without wishing to be accused of sounding too anthropomorphic, it is in that context that I view this discussion.

The demise of local slaughterhouses in the UK means that animals now often have to travel a long way for slaughter. By the time that an animal in the UK reaches its final destination, it is often tired, stressed, confused by the unfamiliarity and frightened by the smell, so the loss of consciousness should be instantaneous. Bill Riley, a past president of the British Veterinary Association, has expressed the view that slaughter without stunning causes suffering, a view echoed by the Farm Animal Welfare Council. I am told that Islamic rules for halal meat can be satisfied with pre-stunned animals, with 80% of UK halal meat now produced this way, so perhaps we could persuade them to make this mandatory, as has been done in Denmark and New Zealand. I understand that kosher meat does not permit pre-stunning, so the question is how to stop the animal suffering. If an animal is not cut correctly, it can take several minutes to die.

While some people choose to eat kosher or halal meat, as Masood Khawaja, the president of the Halal Food Authority, has recognised, others have a right to choose not to eat it, and I therefore echo the comments of others about having it labelled.

I have the greatest respect for those of different faiths and beliefs but I feel that I must speak up for the voiceless. Please let us prioritise kindness towards animals, consider how this affects them and do everything possible to minimise their fear and suffering.

Female Genital Mutilation

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness on having introduced this debate on FGM because this is a taboo subject, especially in the countries where it is practised. We have already heard about the terrible impacts of FGM and how widespread the practice is. It is truly shocking that still today in Djibouti, Egypt, Guinea, Somalia, Sudan and Sierra Leone, more than 90% of women have been through some form of FGM. Many countries already have laws prohibiting FGM; it is a criminal offence in 15 of the 28 African states where FGM is prevalent, although there are few prosecutions. But where it is deeply embedded in the culture, laws alone have proved insufficient to stop it.

Education is key to ending FGM, through both teaching girls their rights and educating the general communities about the dangers of this abhorrent practice. I would like to give two short examples. First, three years ago I visited a women’s group in Abou Mosalem, just outside Cairo, where we talked about FGM. These women explained that they were worried that if their daughters were not done, they might be rejected by their husbands on their wedding night. Then they would be returned and would for ever be an unmarriageable burden on their families, who could not afford to feed them. Some of these women had attended an informative meeting on FGM and changed their minds. It had made some of them decide not to have their daughters circumcised.

Secondly, in July 2010, I visited Komarbai village in Sierra Leone to see a project that was being run with the whole community by Plan UK. In Sierra Leone, it is often the father who will decide when a girl needs to undergo initiation. In many of their communities, it is a big disgrace for a girl to have sex without having gone through the initiation. Sometimes, families will even demand that a girl is circumcised to marry into their family. Through role-play at this village meeting, it was shown that the process not only could be lethal for girls but was illegal. When questioned afterwards, the chief and elders said that they were now not so sure it was a good idea.

In both these countries, the custom of FGM is deeply rooted but these visits show that it is possible to shift that culture. However, it will take time and needs a combination of the right laws and sensitive community education, which I hope that DfID will support, because to truly cease this practice, the communities themselves must embrace change and not just have it foisted on them from the global north.

Children: Development

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

My Lords, I begin by thanking my noble friend Lady Walmsley for raising this issue today, because it is one of the utmost importance. The millennium development goals were undoubtedly the single biggest push to combat world poverty in our history. Although they have succeeded in reducing poverty and child mortality, unfortunately, there is still much to do. In that respect, the post-2015 development agenda has a vital role to play.

Early childhood generally refers to the period of a child’s life between nought and eight when, as my noble friend Lady Walmsley mentioned, critical development occurs—physical, cognitive, linguistic and socio-emotional. I argue that this debate should have a broader scope, because what happens in utero is also critical.

Research into brain development and early childhood development has shown that in utero development and the first three to four years are critical for the development of sensory pathways for social and emotional development. During the early years, the brain develops most rapidly so that children can acquire the habits and skills needed for social and educational success and self-protection. If that development does not occur, children are at risk of mental health, learning and behavioural disorders. Thus, those children will fail to reach their full potential and may also become a challenge to their societies.

MDG 5 focuses on maternal health and is one of the MDGs on which more progress needs to be made. Although maternal mortality has nearly halved since 1990, an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths still occurred in 2010, with the maternal mortality ratio in developing regions being 15 times higher than in developed regions. Having a baby at a very young age also increases the risk and it is estimated that 70,000 adolescents in developing countries die each year from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Thus, early forced marriage is a factor, and FGM also increases birth risk. In those maternal deaths, many of the babies will also die.

Although more women today receive antenatal care, only half of women in developing regions receive the recommended amount of healthcare that they need. Still, today, nearly 50 million babies are delivered without skilled care. The figures that are never produced are for those births which go wrong and result in live babies that are damaged. Very minor damage or slight oxygen deprivation can mean that a child will never reach his or her full potential.

According to UNICEF, in spite of four out of five children now getting vaccinated for a range of diseases and deaths from malaria having fallen by a quarter, around 29,000 children under the age of five still die each day, mainly from preventable causes. Although the death rate has nearly halved since 1990, these deaths mainly occur in developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, one in nine children die before the age of five, while an Ethiopian child is 30 times more likely to die before his fifth birthday than a child in western Europe. Children born into poverty are almost twice as likely to die before the age of five as those from wealthier families. The majority of those living in extreme poverty are female, and they are the ones who will struggle most to raise their children.

Nurture is essential to the development of a baby and very young child, and of course the mother plays a vital role. To provide good care to her child, the mother’s health and well-being are essential. It is estimated that one in seven women in the UK experiences some degree of depression after giving birth, but in developing countries there are simply no statistics about this. Yet we know that when mothers have depression, it can affect the bonding process and thus the child’s development, so postnatal care is extremely important. However, such healthcare may be scarce in many developing countries.

The events of a child’s early life are formative and play a critical role in shaping the way a child develops, and thus in building human capital and promoting economic productivity in later life. Yesterday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Nearly a third of women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of a partner. For a young child, seeing his or her mother being beaten up is a terrifying experience and one which will affect them for the rest of their lives.

Freedom from conflict and violence is the most fundamental human entitlement. War tears children’s lives apart and has a devastating effect on their development. Young children who live in war zones or who are refugees will be severely affected by what they have seen and experienced. Today, it is said to more dangerous to be a woman or a child in war than a soldier. Not only is there imminent physical danger but, usually, a lack of food, an interruption of education and enormous stress. A UNICEF report estimates that during the past decade, through conflict: 2 million children have been killed; 4 million to 5 million have been disabled; 12 million left homeless; more than 1 million left orphaned or separated from their parents; and some 10 million have been psychologically traumatised.

In May this year, I visited Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Meeting some of the families camping in the Bekaa valley gave me some understanding on how hard it was to look after children in such circumstances. I met a woman trying to care for her eight children in a small tent. Having insufficient sanitation and very little clean water meant that maintaining hygiene was especially difficult in those conditions. Diarrhoea was already starting to spread through the camp, which can be fatal for very small and vulnerable children. While the women were trying to look after the children, the men who were there had nothing to do and were frustrated by their situation. We heard that domestic violence was rising. Trying to resolve conflict and promoting peace are also essential for ensuring good childhood development.

Today, in spite of relatively improved nutrition, it is estimated that more than 200 million under-fives in low and middle-income countries will not reach their developmental potential. Children are central to sustainable development. Current and future global development goals, including education goals, will be met only with attention to the overall development of young children, which will involve the rolling out of global and localised maternal and children’s healthcare. Dedicated political support is now required to ensure that there is a focus on guaranteeing that every child around the world is given the very best chance for the very best start in life.