Thousands of healthy pigs to be culled amid shortage of butchers

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Duncan Berkshire told Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday the massive culls have come as a result of a shortage of butchers and vets and said the process is incredibly distressing to carry out given the logistics and manner in which the pigs are dispatched.

The vet went on to say how the issue has not been made any better by a joke cracked by the Prime Minister after he was asked about his feelings towards the latest pig culling by a jounalist.

Mr Johnson told the reporter: “Have you ever had a bacon sandwich? Those pigs when you ate them were not alive!”

Following the comments, Mr Berkshire said: “His comments have been enormously disappointing since he seems unable to see the difference between what we have as a food supply chain…

“Where UK pig farmers are very proud of the food that they put on British consumers’ plate.

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“Compared to the absolute abhorrent food wastage that will be the case if we end up having to shoot healthy pigs that in every other way would be fit for everyone to eat.”

He added: “But we are just going to end up putting them in a skip and send them for incineration – absolute wastage!”

Host Nick Robinson went on to ask the vet how he feels about the cull himself as he questioned how the prospect of shooting 120,000 pigs must be deeply distressing.

He replied: “It is distressing enough to start planning for that, there is a lot of logistics that go into that.”

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Mr Berkshire explained how vets’ most important priority is to ensure that the dispatch and shooting of those pigs is as “humane and high welfare as possible”.

He went on to explain how specially trained staff are required to restrain the pigs in order for them to be dispatched cleanly and within guidelines which is not an easy job.

The vet added: “Having dispatched those animals, it is then dealing with the aftermath, these are big heavy pigs which are boisterous… once they have been restrained you have then got a lot of carcass to deal with.”

He explained how astonishingly, every eight pigs dispatched results in over a tonne of carcass to deal with which adds to the logistical difficulties of the operation.

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The supply chain in Britain has been suffering severe delays due to a shortage of labour across the board, from butchers to HGV drivers.

It comes as Government say they are “continuing to work closely” with the pig industry amid a reported shortage of butchers which could impact food supplies over Christmas.

Ministers are considering plans to ease visa restrictions for up to 1,000 foreign butchers, according to The Times while farmers have asked the scheme is extended to agricultural workers as well amid concerns the loss of labourers from the EU over the past year would hinder operations in the fields.

A spokesman for the Department For Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told the PA news agency: “We understand the importance of seasonal labour and we are aware of the challenges that the pig industry has faced in recent months because of the Covid-19 pandemic and labour shortages, and Defra has been working closely with the pig and processing sectors during this time.

“We are keeping the market under close review and continuing to work closely with the sector to explore options to address the pressures industry is currently facing.”

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