Something sickening is happening out there on the supermarket shelves. Not satisfied with killing 700 million pigs, sheep, chickens and cows every year, the British livestock industry has come up with its latest sick joke: a whole range of new 'exotic' meats to 'tempt' our jaded palates.

The Vegetarian Society is launching a new action to thwart this industry before it takes hold. The Cull of the Wild.

Major supermarket chains are leading the way with wild and wacky meats. Grocery giant ASDA has recently conducted a survey of the exotic meats eaten by its customers while on holiday overseas and has come up with some bizarre suggestions which even include zebra, elephant and camel meat. 'We want to satisfy ever widening tastes' says their grocery manager, Chris Emmel.

Zebra? Elephant? The likelihood is that a British Public well known for its defence of these animals through groups like the World Society for the Protection of Animals and Elefriends will turn their backs on these new cuts, their stomachs sickened at the prospect of eating wildlife. This doesn't stop the entrepreneurs from trying though.

Other species involved in the new exotic trade include bison, buffalo, kangaroo and wild boar. However, one new form of farming has received more publicity than any other: ostrich farming.

British ostrich farming today is a frenzy of mating, breeding and incubating. One source from within the industry told me that it has more in common with pyramid selling than livestock farming. It is advertised in magazines as the perfect home for venture capital, the ideal investment, a growing concern.

Directly mailed to members of the business community who have no farming experience whatsoever, the Ostrich Breeding Corporation's literature asks the potential ratite magnate; 'Do you want to own a product that naturally grows into £'s £'s £'s?'. It describes ostrich farming as 'totally unique and definitely one of the most lucrative and exciting businesses you will ever encounter.'

The suitability of ostriches to being farmed in the UK has to be questionable. The birds are prone to boredom and listlessness, they may run at fencing and injure themselves, they also have a tendency when young to swallow their own bedding or faeces, not to mention other dangerous objects such as bolts and glass.

Sometimes known as 'volaise', ostrich meat retails at between £12 and £15 per pound. But it's not just the meat that rakes in the cash. Ostrich hides have been used in some of the most exclusive of leather products. Designer labels Gucci and Louis Vuitton have both manufactured products from the hides of slaughtered ostriches. The ostrich's feathers are clipped or pulled (if harvested overseas) from the bird while it is still alive and used for decoration, and, if not sold to other breeders, the eggs make increasingly popular curios. Even the ostrich's cornea has been used in some medical treatments. Britain's 'pioneering' Hangland Ostrich Farm has created yet one more range of products from their animals - ostrich night cream and ostrich lipsalve!

So what exactly are we killing on these farms? The ostrich is the world's largest bird and probably best known for its inability to fly. A lively, inquisitive animal, the ostrich needs to be kept with other ostriches to remain happy. It has even been recommended that toys are used to amuse the animals.

Ostriches can live up to 75 years of age. The females may continue laying into their forties, while the males remain fertile for most of their lives. On British farms the birds are slaughtered at just 12 or 15 months of age, with genetic selection offering even younger slaughter ages in the future. The intensive rearing and selective breeding of the animals could cause severe problems such as leg weaknesses through high protein diets and accelerated growth rates, crippling afflictions which are already endemic in Britain's poultry industry.

The massed ranks of ratite profiteers look set to strongly resist any attempts at regulation, even in the face of the suffocation, impactions and deprivations which have already been exposed on a number of farms. The European Ostrich Association, writing in the industry's magazine, were none to pleased about the proposed EU recommendations for Ostrich welfare: 'it is quite possible that such a document will develop into restrictive regulations, based on evidence given by "armchair experts", which could damage the industry before it starts production commercially.' We live in hope.

An animal as large as an ostrich is difficult to raise and equally difficult to slaughter, and it is the slaughter techniques adopted for ratites which cause most reason for concern. Acceptable stunning levels and equipment, transport conditions, lighting at slaughter - all are the subject of debate. Whatever process is adopted, slaughter will inevitably be a grisly business, as the guidelines put forward by Ostrich News suggest. My comments on the guidelines are included in italics:

1. The ostrich should be penned up in a lairage room the evening before slaughter. The lairage room should have the facility to shutter it from light, so that it is completely dark. (The light deprivation is designed to subdue the bird, making it easier to manhandle in the morning. For a bird so dependent on visual stimulation and the company of others of its kind, this is a very cruel trick to play and cannot in any way be described as humane.)

2. The ostrich should be hooded overnight, so as not to stress it prior to slaughter. (This has got a lot more to do with the stress of the slaughterman than the bird! Hooding will leave the bird completely disorientated and distressed.)

3. The next morning the ostrich should be moved to the slaughter pen to be electrically stunned. (The hood will, of course, remain on the ostrich as it is moved.)

4. The hood should be soaked in water and the feet hobbled 18 inches apart. (Perhaps the most sadistic part of the slaughter process, this subdued, disorientated bird will be doused with water and have its feet immobilised.)

5. An electric sheep stunner should be clamped across the head from side to side. Once stunned, the ostrich should be hoisted upside down, and bled to death. (Will the stunning be successful? Will enough current be passed through the bird's large body to stun it completely?)

Exotic meats like kangaroo and llama are beginning to take a hold in the market place. The imports of rare, obscure meats are as troubling as the domestic rearing of ostriches for the simple reason that the welfare abuses and excesses are completely beyond the reach of European legislation. The best example of the barbarity of the farms which produce our imports of exotic meats can be found deep in the swamps of the American South. We have been importing crocodile meat into the UK for the last couple of years and all those involved in the trade claim that things have never been rosier. Freedown Foods in Dorset (Tel: 01258 456622!) are the biggest importer of crocodile meat: 'Interest has really taken off' co-owner Daniel Russell told the Independent.

Consumers might think nothing of eating crocodile meat, assuming that the animal could not suffer because it was 'cold-blooded', a silly term, often used to excuse the eating of fish too. It does no harm to scotch the concept of cold-bloodedness once and for all. If a crocodile's blood became cold it would be in a very poor state indeed - that is why they can be found in the Everglades and not the Lake District! A crocodile is 'ectothermic', which simply means that it takes its body heat from the surrounding environment. Humans, on the other hand, are 'endothermic': they create their body heat internally.

Most crocodiles are certainly not the monsters represented in films like Tarzan or Crocodile Dundee. Many are simply too small to represent any serious threat to humans, in fact, only six human deaths have been attributed to crocodiles since the early 1950s.

Crocodile meat is 'harvested' in both the USA and in South America. In South America most are caught in the wild, in hunts which can entail gruesome and slow deaths for the animals involved. They may be shot, stabbed or caught with nets. When trussed up, final slaughter is achieved by repeatedly clubbing the crocodiles or by spearing them through the back of the neck. They may still be fully conscious when they are skinned. In the USA farmers have actually started ranching the crocodiles on 'gator farms'. The alligators on these farms fare little better. The most common form of slaughter is the driving of a long steel chisel into the nape of the animal's neck. They are taken individually into the slaughterhouse and held down by 2 handlers. The first handler holds up the animal's tail while pressing with one foot upon the alligator's back, the second places a foot on the alligator's jaw and sets to work with the chisel.

Several blows of a heavy hammer force the chisel, hopefully, through the spinal cord, then a second blade is used to cut through the blood vessels. The slow metabolic rates mentioned earlier mean that most crocodiles may take up to 2 hours to lose consciousness. It has been reported by some slaughterhouses in the US that the animals may still be moving as they are carved up.

There are around 50,000 alligators on farms in Florida and 20,000 in Louisiana and the conditions on these farms leave a great deal to be desired. Ninety per cent of the animals may have injuries as fighting is common on a crowded croc farm. Heat stroke due to insufficient shade and unnatural disease from dirty water result in fatality rates of between 10 and 20 per cent in young animals.

Neglect is a serious problem, but on some farms there is open abuse of the animals awaiting slaughter. A recent undercover investigation by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in the USA revealed some particularly outrageous practices on one 'gator farm'. Their investigator watched with horror as the farm workers began a mass slaughter - with an aluminium baseball bat.

Action has to be taken today to force suppliers to turn their backs on a meat which is produced in the sort of despicable conditions which could even rival pate de foie gras or veal.

Many would like to think that even if they continue to eat meat, they'll never touch llama sausages, ostrich burgers or crocodile soup. The proud British consumer is much too civilised to indulge in these absurd new fads. Yet one wild animal is becoming more common than ever on Britain's dinner tables. The sales of venison are on the increase, possibly due it being marketed as a reasonably 'low fat' alternative to meats like beef or pork. The latest sales push has targeted Christmas - celebrate the festive season with a roast Rudolph.

Venison is often promoted as a 'green' meat, from deer who have long since lost their natural predators and who are now wrecking an untouched highland paradise.Wild deer do not make great food, not for humans at least. Only 20 per cent of wild deer is fit for eating, the remaining 80 per cent will be diseased, injured or just too old. The flesh of wild deer reportedly has the sort of natural, strong taste of an active body and not the sweeter taste which consumers prefer, and that's why we've started farm wild deer.

There are around 50,000 or so farmed deer in the UK, most are Red Deer, but a number of other species are also kept. Deer which are highly strung, nervous animals which can be easily frightened or excited.' The animals can be bred on the farm, but some may be captured in the wild and brought into domesticated herds. The deer may be nervous for some time after their capture, and bullying from those animals already imprisoned often prevents them from feeding. They are farmed in small groups of between 10 and 15 deer of a similar size and weight. It has been suggested that adult stags may be even be penned up individually. Other severe restrictions may be placed on these wild and wonderful animals. Some farms keep their deer continuously housed for months on end, with no access to fields or the woodlands which would be their natural habitat.

What's more conditions could become much more intensive in the near future, and experienced watchers cannot deny that the factory farming of deer could be just around the corner. At the Rosemund experimental husbandry farm in Hertfordshire animals are already being forced to grow 40 per cent quicker than normal through the manipulation of light. The Red Deer calves have to be housed in sheds over winter and it is during this period that the growth rates can tend to drop - as do those of other animals during the colder months of the year. Locked in the sheds, the calves are fooled into thinking it is still summer as the farmer extends his daytime hours by keeping the artificial lights on for extended periods. Longer days mean more growth and that means fatter profits.

At between 15 and 18 months the deer will be taken fromthe farm fo slaughter. If slaughtered on the farm, the deer will not be stunned prior to slaughter but killed immediately either with a frontal head shot from a marksman around 10-40m away, or paralysed with a high neck shot to break their spinal cord.

In the abattoir, a more lonely death awaits. The animals arrive in an adapted cattle truck to be off-loaded into a light lairage. They are then switched to a lairage with subdued lights to calm them down. One at a time, the deer are taken from the herd and sent towards a light at the end of the darkened slaughter tunnel where they are shot.

The eating of meat has become increasingly unfashionable, and as 2,000 people a week become vegetarian the meat industry is not going to miss a trick as it attempts to keep the money rolling in. We have to act now to stop the slaughter of wild animals and nip this vile new trade in wild and exotic meats in the bud.

1. Write to your local supermarket or butcher, and urge them not to stock ostrich, kangaroo, crocodile or venison. Use some of the stronger facts and figures in this article to help you compose your letter, and do let us know if you get a reply or any success. If you are in a local vegetarian or green group, you could organise a petition to make sure that wild animals stay off the menu in your neck of the woods.

2. You can also write to the head offices of the major supermarkets.