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

Sadly, the recent BBC series Lambing Live showed an overly picture-box version of this livestock 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 were frankly insulting.

The reality of the British sheep industry is not so rosy. Around 15 per cent of all newborn lambs die annually in the UK, with hypothermia responsible for around 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 10-12 years, but lambs killed for meat are usually just four months old.

If the BBC wants to make programmes such as this, they must not pull the wool over the eyes of their viewers. Why doesn't it commission a documentary that investigates the 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? Contact Viva! on 0117 944 1000 or email info@viva.org.uk.

Justin Kerswell

Viva! campaigns manager

Wilder Street, Bristol