Prince Charles Goes Green by Slaughtering Cows

Prince Charles and staff did an environmental assessment of his Home Farm in Gloucestershire and decided the best way to cut his carbon footprint was to cut down the size of his dairy herd. Cows emit a lot of methane, which contributes to global warming, and the royal bovines were bringing down Charles' environmentalist rating. One aide explained, "It was a wrench for the prince, but a lot of the herd had to go for slaughter or his carbon levels would have been through the roof."

And that would just make him look bad.

Prince Charles has a history of being single-minded and short-sighted in his environmental crusades. Earlier this year, he launched a campaign to save the wool industry. While promoting it as a "renewable resource," he ignored the cruelty endured by the sheep and the impact of flocks on wildlife and the environment. Just last month, he got behind a plan to brutally cull grey squirrels in order to reintroduce red squirrels, which activists say is ineffective as well as barbaric.

What should he have done with the cows? Sending them to a sanctuary would have just moved the problem, not eliminated it. But, in reality, that's all he did anyway. So, there aren't dairy cows on his property, but has he or his staff reduced their consumption of dairy products? It's a classic case of Not in My Back Yard. If they had looked at the carbon levels of the prince's entire lifestyle and not just his Home Farm, then these cows wouldn't have had to pay for his decisions.

I've said it before (in fact, I've said it in regards to Prince Charles) and I'll say it again: You can't be an environmentalist while causing other species to suffer. Environmentalism is about more than just a number — carbon levels or acres preserved — or saving the planet for the planet's sake. It's about protecting the animals, plants and people who live here. And as soon as you forget that it's all interconnected, as Prince Charles seems to do on a regular basis, then your activism hits a dead-end.

Arbitrarily slaughtering cows today doesn't reduce the carbon footprint of the industry tomorrow, if nothing else changes. In other words, don't take it out on the animals we already brought into this mess, but take steps to prevent it from happening in the future. Reduce production and demand to reduce future herd sizes, and stop the insane rate of reproduction happening in factory farms (and stop factory farms altogether).

Charles is in a position to make a real difference for the environment and for animals by setting meaningful examples, like slashing his dairy intake, not just his dairy herd.

Photo credit: Public Domain