Since white veal production is inefficient and there are inevitable welfare problems it is to be hoped that public demand for it will continue its rapid downward trend and such production systems will soon disappear.

I believe these "Freedoms" [the "Five Freedoms Proposed in the Brambell Report (1965)] are reasonable requirements to assure the liberty of essential animal movements. I also believe that it is within the reach of modern agricultural production systems to permit such an essential liberty, without adverse impact on the productivity of animals or the efficiency of the system. Nevertheless, these freedoms are not the only criteria for a production system which intends to respect elementary requirements for the well-being of farm animals. A reasonable guiding principle for the design and operation of ethically sound animal housing systems should assure that every sentient, living organism subjected to full, direct human control should have an opportunity to experience an environment to which its own genotype is predisposed, in order to develop into a physically and psychologically healthy organism. To reach a goal all farm animals should have benefit of:

• adequate air, water and feed supply (according to their biological requirements)
• safe housing and sufficient amount of space (to prevent injuries or atrophies and assure normal growth)
• an appropriate level of environmental complexity (to prevent harmful understimulation and boredom or overstimulation and fear)
• regular daily supervision and effective health care (to minimize undetected injuries or illness and initiate prompt assistance)
• sensible handling in all stages of their life (to avoid unnecessary suffering)

Bernard Rollin
PhD, Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
Colorado State University

White veal production is to animal agriculture as the Draize test (where cosmetics or shampoos are put into rabbit' eyes to test for irritancy) is to animal research. Both are perceived by the public as examples of these activities at their worst. Like placing potential irritants into rabbits' eyes and scoring the resultant lesions for the sake of generating new cosmetics, what is seen as "torturing" calves to produce an expensive product consumed by a small portion of the population is unacceptable to the social ethic... My own experiences with public attitudes toward veal provide, I believe, a typical reflection of opinion. I travel and lecture extensively and mingle with a wide cross-section of the population, from ranchers to urbanites, from blue collar workers to college presidents. It is noteworthy that, across these populations, it is ethically correct - and mainstream - to assert that one does not eat veal, on humane grounds... A high USDA official told me that he, and about half his peers, similarly will not eat veal. The vast majority of western ranchers I talk to also disavow veal on ethical grounds.