On Monday, representatives of agricultural branch organizations held a protest in front of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Their main demand was for the resignation of Minister Kiril Vatev. In an attempt to attract the attention of the authorities, some of the protesters decided to use a newborn calf as a prop – in the center of Sofia, next to a busy boulevard, while they set fire to straw in front of the small animal.
It is unacceptable to use animals as props for protest. A calf just a few days old needs to be with its mother, have constant contact with her, and be able to suckle from her every few hours. Unfortunately, in this case, it was most likely taken from her immediately after birth.
For the welfare of animals… and breeders?
According to Art. 7, para. 2, item 7 and item 8 of the Animal Protection Act is considered as cruelty forcing animals to work or using animals for filming, advertising and exhibitions in which pain, suffering, damage or stress are caused to them.
It is extremely clear that it can hardly be considered humane to separate a calf from its mother shortly after its birth, so that a few days later it can be loaded into a trailer and transported kilometers to a protest in the center of Sofia.
Against this background, the poster of one of the protesters, which reads – “I want humane treatment for farmers as well”, is striking. There is nothing wrong with this position in itself, but in this context it raises a doubt: What is this “humane treatment” to which he refers? Is the treatment of the newborn calf, deprived of care and contact with its mother and subjected to cold and stress, humane?
In fact, the saddest thing about the whole situation is that for almost every calf in Bulgaria, industrially raised in a livestock facility, it is debatable whether being used for protest is crueler than the usual way its life looks at seven days old. After they are born, almost all calves in our country are locked in cages barely bigger than themselves, where they are isolated and lonely.
In such a cage, the calf can hardly move and often cannot even turn around. The cell may be only 1.1 times the length of the calf and as wide as the calf is tall. There, the newborn calf cries for days and weeks for its mother and is alone. It is a social animal, but has little to no contact with other calves to comfort each other, feel safe, or keep each other warm in the winter cold. The EU’s Competent Scientific Authority (EFSA) recommends that this practice be stopped by law and that calves in the Union be reared together, in small groups and with more space.
There will be no demands for better animal protection until society demands them. Therefore, it is crucial not only for representatives of the branch organizations of animal breeders to address their demands to politicians, but also for citizens who understand what humane treatment and cruelty mean. Otherwise, the way animals are treated in our country will be determined by people for whom separating a newborn animal from its mother and transporting it across Bulgaria for a protest is no different than using any other a prop as long as the goal is being achieved.
