FROM THE ARCHIVES:The "Economic War" in the 1930s – when Ireland withheld land annuity payments to Britain, which retaliated with trade tariffs – caused major problems for farmers, with a collapse in agricultural prices and a glut of cattle on the Irish market.
In an attempt to reduce the numbers of unexportable cattle, the Fianna Fáil government introduced a 10 shilling bonus on calf skins which led to the widespread slaughter of calves in Munster in particular, and created a surfeit of veal.
People quickly tired of cheap veal, even when it was given away for nothing.
A report on the situation by a “special representative” prompted this editorial comment in the newspaper on this date in 1934.
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WE PRINT to-day a report from our Special Correspondent, who has been in the South of Ireland investigating the situation in regard to the slaughter of calves.
All sorts of wild stories have been spread since [Minister for Agriculture] Dr. [James] Ryan’s plan of a 10 shilling bounty for calf skins came into force.
There undoubtedly has been a great deal of exaggeration; but our representative’s enquiries have revealed a condition of affairs which suggests that the charges of wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter are not altogether without foundation. Slaughter is reported on an extensive scale from Mid-Cork, Limerick and North Kerry.
One firm in Cork, which deals in hides and skins, has received an average of 1,000 calf skins a day for eight days, and since Dr Ryan’s scheme came into operation, 20,000 skins have reached Cork.
Mid-Cork always specialised in veal; but in pre-bounty days, it seems, only those calves were killed which were not suitable for raising as stores.
Now there is no discrimination. Heifer calves of the best quality are being slaughtered in large numbers, and there is such a surfeit of veal that the problem of its disposal is causing much embarrassment to the farmers.
At the beginning, the people of the district revelled in cheap veal; but they quickly tired of it.
Then they were supplied free of charge, and when even this expedient proved to be useless the carcasses were offered to the local kennels.
Veal, apparently, is not a suitable diet for hounds, so, as a last resort, the carcasses were sent to factories for conversion into meat meal. In an interview with our representative, Dr O’Connor, of Macroom, declared that outside the walls of the hospital, in a place known as the Glen, there is a trench in which thousands of carcasses have been buried.
Normally, about 100 calves were slaughtered every week in the Macroom area; but now this number has risen to 1,500, and some four thousand animals have been slaughtered there since the bounty came into being.
Our representative learnt that, in order to get rid of the carcasses with the least possible trouble, certain farmers, who had bought calves in a southern town, killed them near the roadside, and packed the carcasses, still bleeding, into a lorry for transport to their destination.
He also was informed that in a village in Mid-Cork, 20 calves had been skinned before they had been bled properly.
When one makes all due allowances for over-statement, there seems to be little doubt that the condition of affairs in respect of calf slaughter is highly unsatisfactory.
It is the Government’s clear duty to conduct a strict enquiry into all the circumstances, and we suggest that if Dr Ryan would suspend the operation of his bounty scheme, pending such an enquiry, the minds of many who have grave misgivings on the matter would be set at rest.
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