They also hide the fact that each year in Australia some 500 million farm animals are denied the protection of animal cruelty laws, despite the fact that farm animals have exactly the same capacity for suffering as the family dog or cat.

These legislative exemptions allow industries that raise animals for food to legally commit acts of cruelty including:

• Painful surgical procedures such as tail docking, teeth clipping and castration of animals, which are conducted without anaesthetic.
• Pregnant and mother pigs are confined in cages so small that they cannot even turn around, lie down properly, or interact with their young.
• “Debeaking”: the practice of cutting off of the tips of baby birds’ sensitive beaks to prevent cannibalism in crowded enclosures. This procedure often slices through nerves and can cause chronic pain, leading to starvation.
• Mass overcrowding of ‘battery hens’ in tiny cages that restrict egg-laying birds from even stretching their wings. Each bird is issued a space smaller than one A4 sized piece of paper until they are slaughtered at approximately 18-months.
• And the list goes on...

Shocking—isn’t it. But there is hope.

Some of these cruel practices have been outlawed overseas*—an achievement made possible by the power of informed consumer choice. Free range farming is also expanding in Australia due to the demand for ‘more humane’ alternatives to factory-farmed products. This means that an increasing number of animals are being offered a life with more room to move, and more space to express natural instincts.

Whilst this is an important step forward for animals, it is important to note that all animals commercially raised for food—free-range and factory-farmed alike—meet a similar fate when they are slaughtered in the same abattoirs.

This year, we have the opportunity to make an informed choice. Cruel animal industries would prefer that we remain unaware of the suffering that they are responsible for. But by simply choosing not to purchase their products you can send the most important Christmas message of all—peace on earth and goodwill to all—and will be casting your vote for a kinder world.

Leaving cruelty off the menu is not only more humane to animals, it also benefits the environment, and is better for your health. And fortunately, there are plenty of delicious alternatives and animal-friendly recipes, making the choice to be cruelty-free this Christmas easier than ever...

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* ‘Sow stalls’ which severely restrict the movement of pregnant pigs are banned in the UK and being phased out in the EU. In the USA, Smithfield Foods, the worlds largest pork processor and pig producer, have committed to phasing out the use of cruel sow stalls in response to consumer concern.