AIBU to ask why it’s unacceptable to eat Veal, but Lamb is fine?

[Wills]

I’ve just returned from a holiday in France where Veal is as common as Lamb yet back here Veal is a big no no but lamb is acceptable? I’m not keen on Beef or Veal, just interested in what the difference is in terms of eating baby animals?

Lambs live a lovely, free range life with their mothers and herd-mates.

I dread to break your little Disney bubble by advising you to do a bit of research...

As others have said, traditionally veal production was quite cruel, akin to foie gras production for example (not the same methods but excessive cruelty involved). You can now get rose veal which is calf meat but without the cruelty involved in white veal production. The issue is not, and never has been, about eating baby animals!

I agree, but it is at least possible to produce lamb in those conditions and if it's something you're not ethically opposed to eating in the first place you can find farms that do produce it that way. Veal, not so much.

I don’t think i have seen any veal for sale in the uk that wasnt rose veal. Traditional veal production in uk is long gone.

But they actually do. And the lamb you eat is not a baby animal.

Veal in France is no longer kept in crates in the dark. The veal we buy is kept in fields with the mother ( we know the farmer).

The UK are still hung up on a panorama documentary that came out in the 1980's.

If you are really worried about animal welfare then make sure you know where your bacon. Comes from.

@DoubleTequilaSunrise knowing a lot of sheep farmers, what part of that statement are you saying is wrong? Lamb is very free range meat (farms I know anyway).

It's called lamb but what they send to slaughter is actually a sheep, not the little cute ones you see in the field. I think a lot of people don't realise this.

I was wondering this. I grew up in Welsh valleys. Sheep would literally be walking down the road. Ate all my mums roses. That doesn't happen so much now, but you can walk up the mountain and see the sheep in the fields.

Isn't most lamb in supermarkets New Zealand? So Welsh experience is not that applicable

Not saying New Zealand sheep are indoor etc

Veal WAS unacceptable when it was crates calves. It isn't now as rose veal.

This. I cannot fathom how anyone thinks one animal is acceptable for consumption but are horrified at the prospect of another dying.

Baby cows are cuter than baby sheep

My folks live surrounded by fields let to sheep farmers, all of whom they know well and keep an eye on the sheep for, in return for a generous ration of lamb for the freezer each year. This has been the case for over a decade

The life of the lambs looks pretty idyllic to me. What makes you think it’s not?

Well I expect the animals that people are horrified at the prospect of their death, are the ones they have a personal connection to, no?

I don’t see how that is impossible to fathom.

I don’t really understand the point of view that it is better (for the animal) to not live at all (and many breeds to die out) than to live a short and decent life followed by a quick death. But I can ‘fathom’ it, because I realise that all people don’t think the same about things. 🤷🏻‍♀️

There’s an argument that we should eat rose veal; the more demand for it here, the fewer of our British calves will be sent for live export to be reared for veal in Europe or beyond, where there is much more demand for it.

I would be interested to see evidence that lamb is not humanely farmed in the UK (as someone who lives next to a sheep farm and can literally see almost fully-grown lambs in the field with their mums from out of the window as I type this).

Lamb isn't really those cute baby lambs we see bouncing around the fields in spring. They're young sheep, anywhere between 8 and 14 months. We've always hand reared our own and never thought as lamb meat being baby lambs. After all, there's nothing to butcher there.

Lamb isn't a baby animal. It's a sheep under a year old. There's no meat on a "baby" lamb.

This

I would eat rose veal and not really have much of an issue. If the calves were raised like lambs are, in fields and roaming then it's a world away from the cruelty of white veal.

We don't keep sheep indoors. They eat grass because that is what they are designed to eat. We can't afford to feed concentrates all the time and it isn't good for them. Trying to make out that New Zealand farmers are more compassionate to animals is ludicrous.

The Lamb is British or welsh where i shop. The cheaper stuff tends to be NZ

People should only ever buy British meat. Fewer food miles, supporting national farming and higher ethics.

I didn't try to make out anything. I was pointing out that for most people lamb in shop is not from the lovely Welsh villages people talk about here. So "I see sheep on my way home" has no bearing on basic shop bought lamb meat. Literally added this bit so no one would come with "so u dissin NZ?". No.