Animal welfare
Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (13:59): I would like to use my last members statement for the year to encourage kindness over the holiday period. Pigs are as intelligent as dogs and like to snuggle snout to snout. Lambs and sheep can recognise up to 50 faces and experience a wide range of emotions, with many studies highlighting their ability to feel afraid, angry, bored, sad and happy. Turkeys are amazing creatures – their heads even change colour when they are excited. Yet in Victoria pigs are lowered into gassing cells at six months old; lambs are born in freezing winters and die in the elements so they can be eaten at a time that suits consumers; and turkeys are raised in dark, cramped sheds, modified to grow so quickly that their own legs cannot hold up their weight, and killed years before their natural life would end.
But despite these horrors, there is a kind solution. I am looking forward to a plant-based holiday period filled with all the classics, just made without the suffering. I am even going to make a pavlova out of aquafaba, which is incredibly the juice from a chickpea can. My holiday message is this: if you are going to have a pig, lamb or turkey for Christmas, please make sure you give them a good seat at the table.