Scottish school accused of 'indoctrinating' children by encouraging them to buy and sell meat
The school is teaching a new course which includes buying and selling a lamb for market.
A Dumfriesshire school is being accused of “indoctrinating” children by teaching them to buy and sell meat.
Wallace Hall Academy in Thornhill has started teaching a brand new higher called the Young Agri Leader programme. The course teaches rural skills through a mix of on-site workshops and classroom-based learning.
The programme includes the “meatbox challenge”, in which pupils purchase a lamb at market and then work with a butcher to sell it. The pupils will be in charge of all aspects, including price negotiation, advertising, producing invoices and accounting.
However, animal rights charity Peta has slammed the school for this challenge, saying it is “indoctrinating [pupils] into a violent farming system”.
Peta has written to the school’s head teacher Barry Graham, saying the institution should instead offer a “plantbox challenge” and teach sustainable plant farming instead.
Dawn Carr, vice-president of vegan corporate projects at Peta, said: “Like all children, Wallace Hall Academy’s students have a natural empathy towards animals, and encouraging them to treat living, sensitive individuals as commodities to be killed for profit is indoctrinating them into a violent farming system.
“Peta is urging the school to take cruelty off the curriculum and inspire the next generation of farmers to grow sustainable Scottish plants like oats and fava beans that are kind to animals, the planet and our health.
“Every year, millions of lambs bred for their flesh die from exposure, malnutrition or disease within days of birth, and survivors are typically slaughtered when they’re just ten weeks old.
“During their short lives, they may undergo painful mutilations, such as tail-docking and castration, without painkillers.
“Before they end up on someone’s plate, lambs are packed onto lorries, sometimes without food or water, for gruelling journeys to an abattoir, and some are still conscious and aware as workers cut their throats.
“Raising animals for food is a leading cause of environmental destruction, as it requires massive amounts of land, food, energy and water and emits huge quantities of greenhouse gases.”
Conservative MSP for Dumfriesshire Oliver Mundell said: “Peta are on another planet and should keep their divisive nonsense to themselves.
“This is exactly the kind of initiative young people in rural Scotland need and it should be being celebrated.
“While everyone is entitled to make their own choices, the facts speak for themselves.
“Scottish meat is not only healthy but produced to some of the highest standards in the world.”
Dumfries and Galloway Council has been approached for comment.
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