SPRING is here and what better illustration of new life and hope than seeing newborn lambs in the countryside?

Sadly, the recent BBC series Lambing Live showed an overly picture-box version of this industry, while sidestepping more awkward questions on animal welfare and the morality of eating meat.

The programme makers failed viewers and the animals themselves, by not showing the grim reality of slaughter.

TV presenter Kate Humble's platitudes about killing baby animals – let's not make bones about it because that is what they are – were insulting.

The reality of the British sheep industry is not so rosy.

About 15 per cent of all newborn lambs die annually in the UK, with hypothermia responsible for about one million deaths each year.

Most UK lambs are subjected to tail docking; a rubber ring is applied to the tail and prevents blood flow, between four to six weeks later the tail will wither and drop off. This causes pain and stress.

Naturally, sheep can live between 10 and 12 years, but lambs killed for meat are typically just four months old.

If the BBC undertakes to make programmes such as this, they must not – for want of a better term – pull the wool over the eyes of their viewers. For once, why doesn't the BBC commission a documentary that investigates the shocking truth behind the short lives and brutal deaths of the 881 million animals killed for meat each year in the UK?

If you want to celebrate new life this spring, why not go veggie?

For free help in saving the lives of animals contact Viva! on 0117 9441000.

Justin Kerswell, Viva! Campaigns Manager.