Day 3 - Peace and Goodwill to All (Including All Animals!)

Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace and goodwill to all, and that should include all animals.

Animal Aid’s Christmas recipes, including this Chocolate Christmas Star, are perfect for your festive feast – and none of them involve the exploitation or slaughter of animals.

Most traditional Christmas desserts rely heavily on dairy and eggs. But what most people don’t realise is that the dairy and egg industries are horrifically cruel to animals.

In the dairy industry, for example, dairy cows face a cycle of forced impregnation. Their babies are then taken away from them, causing them to suffer huge emotional distress. When these cows are no longer considered profitable, they are sent to the slaughterhouse.

If the babies are female, they will face the same fate as their mother. If they are male, they can be sent to veal farms; sent to slaughter shortly after birth; or exported to other countries via live exports to be raised and slaughtered for consumption.

In the egg industry, male chicks are considered useless because they do not lay eggs. As such, they are ‘culled’ at a few days old. In the UK, male chicks are usually gassed to death, but other permitted methods include being minced alive. And when the egg-laying hens, almost half of whom in the UK are still confined to cages, are considered ‘spent’ and no longer profitable, they too are sent to the slaughterhouse.

It has never been easier to be vegan and to have a compassionate Christmas; vegan options are now everywhere, making it much more convenient to make compassionate choices, which reduce the suffering of animals.

Animal Aid has a plethora of festive vegan recipes on our website, as well as a handy vegan Christmas recipe booklet.

This Christmas, extend peace and good will to all animals, and have a vegan Christmas!