Marcus the Sheep - Discuss...

[kerilli]

i agree with pirani, it sounds as if someone was getting off on it.
not sure we should believe one word in 100 in The Sun either...
i wonder how many of those children will turn vegetarian or vegan now?

 

[Fantasy_World]

I agree LHS boundaries were blurred in this instance. The lamb was named and hand fed by children at the school. Now I am sorry but that for me likens this animal to ones that are kept at inner city or petting zoos where 'farm' animals are kept to educate people in general and interaction is gained through petting and being allowed to feed the animals food bought on site at the venues.
Whilst this animal may have been raised ultimately for meat. I think it was very wrong 'morally' how this was achieved. Some of the children must have formed emotional attachments to the animal. The lamb had been named also which is another form of attachment to an animal in my opinion. If it were to be raised for meat I don't believe the level of interaction between pupils and the lamb should have been allowed. The naming of the lamb for a start, making it clearly identifiable. I don't know many 'meat' farmers that give their livestock 'pet' names. They can obviously identify them though through tags, markings, colours and behaviour traits etc.
Allowing the children to hand feed the lamb. Was this done by the pupils scooping food with their hands into feeding containers or were the children literally hand feeding? If the latter then I am sorry I find it totally immoral to do that to an animal that is going to be slaughtered. Ok so you can argue that the animals are not aware they are going to be killed. Yes that is true. But for me personally I find interaction with animals that results in trusting bonds being made and effectively 'tames' them very wrong morally! If you are going to rear animals for meat then yes ok you need to make sure they are not stressed by human activity so that health checks can be made and various drugs administered etc for welfare purposes and to comply with regulations. But to tame an animal so that it not only comes to you seeking affection(petting) as well as food/treats when that animal is going to be slaughtered is wrong in my opinion!
Animals are either food or providers of meat, fur, feather or other substances we can utilise, or else are pets. They should never ever be both in the same sentence. It is wrong!
Was this sheep part of a small herd or kept alone? If alone then I am sorry this makes this whole story even more sick in my opinion. Because the animal would have been imprinted onto people for companionship etc as it had none of its own kind for company. Sheep like many animals are herd animals.
I also agree with another poster in that someone somewhere truly got a kick out of this. Whether that was power gained through having the final say ie it would be slaughtered ( since there could have been a change around brought on by public pressure), power over ALL the pupils, staff and parents. There was only a small percentage of the school's pupils whose voting counted in this instance. Or power over the creature. Ie it was bought for slaughter and that is damned well where it was going to end up no matter what controversy it courted.
There are better alternatives for teaching children the process of rearing animals for eating than this in my opinion. Years ago school/college children would attend slaughter houses. I don't know if they still do? This would have been a better way to teach children where our meat comes from in my opinion. Take them to farms to see how animals are treated and raised. Allow them to see vets in action treating animals. Not only would this allow children to see the principles of animal husbandry but it would also allow them to get a practical view of various job practices which may or may not influence a particular career path later in life.
I do not see how raising animals in a school setting and then slaughtering them would teach them any more than what could be achieved by farm/slaughterhouse visits, except perhaps to 'harden' a child's perception.

 

[Skippydo]

Golden rule, never name an animal intended for the table. It maybe should have just been refered to as 'the sheep'.
Not that we ever intend to eat any of our, good job cos they've all got names!!
Poor Marcus

 

[gekko]

The local school here has an Ag class (gee, imagine that, a school in a farming area that teaches Ag?) The raise sheep and chickens each year that get the chop. The kids name them I'm sure.
We have a heifer, "chloe the calf" who is going on a date with Geoff, the butcher in the very near future.
The two goat kids sleeping in their pen under our bedroom window that we are handraising... the male, "Dude" will go in the freezer in a while... "Burt", the litte wether lamb down the back will snuggle up along side him.....

I like meat, I like animals...I just realise that animals are made of meat and accept that their purpose in life is to taste good, no matter their name!

 

[eahotson]

When my mother and her brother and sisters went to school (in a very rural area) they learned about boreing things. Reading and writing for instance.Nowadays they learn how to slaughter sheep but leave school illiterate. Modern world hey?

 

[Fantasy_World]

What a really pointless post that was

Heh my ickle smiley can do sarcasm too, oh fancy that

 

[kerilli]

I agree with pirani actually.
I would have been absolutely distraught and inconsolable for months if as a child i'd been put in that position, having a school 'pet' who was named, petted, and then taken for slaughter. that is not what school is for imho.

 

[eahotson]

Gekko honey, I don't quite know how to put this to you without upsetting you, BUT nothing snuggles up to nothing in the freezer because they are DEAD.Not necessarily a bad thing but a little reality is not a bad thing.

 

[spike123]

Okay firstly let me point out some of the incorrect facts here.
Firstly the sheep was not named at all.There are 3 sheep who were called A,B and C.The school council made the decision to send this sheep to market.The week all this came to the press attention the vote was in fact put to all the children(so I am told by several parents of kids in the school) and the majority still voted for the sheep to go to slaughter. The few parents who have kicked up a fuss have mostly been backed by outsiders who know nothing whatsoever about what really happened other than by press speculation and I know for a fact that some of them are not vegetarians and regularly enjoy tucking into a kebab. The reason I know this is because I come from the same town.The majority feeling is one of support for the school in their decision.Most of the kids have acted far more responsibly than the adults who on some of the FB pages devoted to the sheep have made nasty death threats.

 

[gekko]

OMG Pirani, you mean the little lambies (in small pieces) are not having a sleep over in their little plastic sleeping bags nestled in the freezer?????

OMG!!!! Somebody do SOMETHING!

 

[Spudlet]

[ QUOTE ]
OMG Pirani, you mean the little lambies (in small pieces) are not having a sleep over in their little plastic sleeping bags nestled in the freezer?????

OMG!!!! Somebody do SOMETHING!

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, now I feel enlightened - who knew?

Seriously - the children voted for it. It was their decision, then a few fluffy parents started whining and every other fluffy within a 6000 mile radius got involved as far as I can see.

FFS, this sheep lived the life of Riley and was humanely slaughtered - you don't have to look far to see what a lucky beastie it was!

 

[eahotson]

No Gekko, sorry honey.They are not having sleep overs in those little plastic bags.

 

[HeWasGeeBee]

[ QUOTE ]
This headmistress actually sounds quite unpleasant and i would not want my child to be under her care. She has little common sense and still less compassion. She was determined to "win" her battle over this regardless of the feelings of these very young children.

[/ QUOTE ]

hang on though I thought the kids got to vote and voted for the lamb to be killed

 

[Spudlet]

As far as I know they did

 

[spike123]

as already said I live local and yes the kids did vote on it.

 

[Natch]

Oh for goodness sake. As far as I can tell, the school adopted a sensible program of study which involved live animals, which from the word go they told the kids they would be slaughtered. Regardless of if they named it (them?) it was always known that they would be slaughtered for human consumption. It even sounds like the program might have been opt-in or out.

I would have jumped at the chance to get involved with this as a kid, and I certainly wouldn't have been traumatised when it went to slaughter. Sad, maybe upset, yes, but it is an important lesson to learn IMO.

 

[Scheherezade]

Is anyone else feeling a wee bit peckish now?


Lamb shank with mint and gravy anyone....mmmmmmm