Fluffy lambs, tasty meals

By Paul Fulford on April 14, 2008 6:43 PM | Permalink

Lambs at this time of the year are at their cutest as they stick close to their mums, their faces so trusting as they study passers-by.

So why, as I drove through the Lake District yesterday, did I think of them as potential meals? Does it make me a bad person?

I despise wanton cruelty to animals but love meat - especially, as spring arrives, new season lamb cooked to pink, tender perfection.

As long as the creatures are treated with respect, I can live with my conscience.

Indeed, I believe that confronting where meat comes from gives me a lot more respect for animals than those people who like to think it doesn't exist before it appears ready-wrapped on supermarket shelves.

Lots of people get all sentimental when they consider fluffy little lambs or wide-eyed calves, but don't give a second thought to buying cheap chicken that comes from birds intensively reared and slaughtered at a young age without the merest whiff of the great outdoors.

Let's get real about meat, but not soppy. I don't shrink from eating meat I know comes from animals that were allowed to roam and live naturally.

They were reared for meat. I can live with that.