The irony of how animals are treated at Easter and how you can help

The irony of eating lambs at Easter 

Eating ‘lamb’ on Easter Sunday is a traditional but ironic way to celebrate a holiday that’s all about new life. Because how do we humans celebrate new life? By eating it. 

Yet most people don’t realise that in order to supply the lucrative Easter market, many lambs are actually born in the depths of winter, when cold and unpredictable weather causes more than 10% of lambs to die within their first month of life. Those who survive will be slaughtered around 4 months of age – just in time for Easter.

Like all farmed animals, lambs’ lives are short and brutal, but the industry doesn’t want consumers to know this. 

For example, the industry claims that castrating lambs soon after birth is necessary to reduce unplanned breeding, yet lambs are slaughtered before reaching sexual maturity. The real reason is that castration encourages weight gain and therefore more money come slaughter-time. Similarly, tail docking is claimed to be the “only practical means” of managing fly infestations and yet populations of wild sheep have exist just fine without having their body parts removed. How far will the industry go to keep up the charade of Easter ‘tradition’?  

Commercialised cruelty 

Dating back to ancient times, the egg symbolised new life and fertility. Like with lambs, it’s ironic that the consumption of eggs actually prevents new life from being born. 

In natural conditions, a mother chicken (known as a ‘hen’) would take great care of her unhatched eggs, even using a special call to communicate with the chicks inside. But on commercial egg farms, hens and chicks never meet. Instead, chickens destined for egg production are hatched inside industrial incubators. Female chicks will replace their mothers as ‘layers’ while male chicks, who cannot lay eggs, will be killed for being economically ‘useless’. 40-45 million of these newly hatched chicks are macerated or gassed in hatcheries each year, on their very first day of life. 

And then there’s dairy…

…one of the most cruel and exploitative methods of animal farming. In the UK, as many as 90 million chocolate eggs will be sold at Easter, most of which will contain cow’s milk. 

Yet many people don’t realise just how cruel the dairy industry is: almost all cows are made pregnant via artificial insemination (a traumatic and invasive assault), a fifth spend their entire lives indoors in ‘zero grazing units’ and around 20% of cows are suffering from mastitis (a painful inflammation of the udder) and/or lameness at any one time. Crucially, the separation of mothers and calves is a fundamental part of dairy production – there is no milk or dairy product that does not involve this devastating separation of mother and baby. 

Looking for dairy-free Easter eggs? We love this round-up of 2025’s best
vegan Easter eggs compiled by Vegan Food & Living Magazine. 

You can also visit the Animal Aid Shop for Easter treats, gifts,
and chocolates. 

A fresh start for all 

The suffering of animals at Easter doesn’t end with the animals on our plates. Here are more issues to be aware of, and how you can help: 

‘Lambing events’ allow the public to visit farms and watch sheep give birth, sometimes even interacting with the newborn lambs. Such events are stressful for animals and perpetuate the idea that animals are commodities to be looked at and exploited for education or profit (or both!) even at their most vulnerable.

‘Hatching projects’ take place in schools under the guise of teaching children about life cycles but most people are unaware of the animal suffering involved and how these projects impact children’s perception of animals. 

Not only are classroom incubators inadequate (resulting in poor health) but schools often don’t have the knowledge or resources to provide the care these chicks need. Fundamentally, hatching projects teach children that animals are disposable and encourage them to bring more baby animals into the world, such as puppies and kittens. 

*Please download the letter below and send to Bridget Phillipson MP, Secretary of State for Education.

Egg decorating dates back to the medieval age, when eggs were forbidden during Lent. Instead, paintings of eggs and decorating eggs boomed in popularity. Nowadays, instead of using the eggs of chickens, ducks and other birds, please buy the wooden or cardboard variety found in most craft stores – they can even be reused next year!  

Finally, ‘game’ bird shooting. There is perhaps no animal rights violation quite like breeding birds into existence simply so that they can be shot…for fun. Yet that’s exactly what the shooting industry entails: thousands of pheasants and partridges confined to cages their entire lives and forced to produce millions of chicks that will go on to feed the industry’s insatiable appetite for cruelty.

The spirit of Easter (and Spring more generally) is hope, renewal and new life. Let’s extend these same sentiments to our fellow animals who deserve to live free from exploitation and the threat of harm, all year round 💚🌱 To support our work, please consider becoming an Animal Aid member or order FREE campaign resources for distributing in your local area.