Australia Day: Eat Baby Peas, Not Baby Sheep
Australia Day is meant “to inspire national pride and spirit” – it has nothing to do with eating lamb.
And yet Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) is trying to cash in on the celebration with buffoonish caricatures of ethnic and cultural groups as well as a controversial new ad that doesn’t even mention Australia Day. Instead, it implies that people can somehow be united by paying MLA to kill lambs and other baby animals.
The group must be worried about all the recent studies showing that many Australians can no longer stomach meat. A University of Adelaide survey found that 21 per cent of Australians are reducing their consumption of lamb, while the number of vegetarians increased by 20 per cent between 2009 and 2013.
A Roy Morgan Research poll found that 99 per cent of Australians oppose cruelty to animals, and we know that animals who are killed for food are electrocuted or shot in the head with a bolt before they’re cut open.
Flesh is bad for the human body, too. Meat-eaters are more likely to suffer from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other illnesses. In addition, eating meat and other animal-based foods is a major contributor to climate change and other environmental problems.
This Australia Day, the only babies on our plates should be baby peas or corn – not baby sheep.
Let’s make 2025 a historic year for animals
