Sheep culling
Heard this on the news over the weekend adn it made be extremely sad adn very angry. You may know that we've had another outbreak of foot and mouth disease over here (why won't they just vaccinate?) and as a result animal movement is prohibited except to go to slaughter. The farmers therefore can't sell their beasts (not meant to be offensive - just what country people call them here) abroad to the continent. Not only are they not making money from selling them, the lambs, which are now sheep sized, are putting on tons of fat and eating all the grazing intended for the parent beasts over the winter. So, some of them are asking the government for compensation money for culling (i.e. slaughtering) the lambs they can't sell because they can't afford to feed them over the winter. While I'm certain that some could afford the cost, I live in the country and trying to feed them over the winter without any money coming in will quite literally bankrupt some of them - some I call friends too. it's confusing, disheartening and deeply, deeply upsetting on several fronts. What do you all think?
Wait, what is going on? Farmers have sheep, but they can't sell them.......so they're feeding the lambs they would have sold (to the slaughter?), and now there won't be enough food. So they're asking for money to slaughter the lambs?
Is there an article?
Tell them to get into the vegetable farm business (not meaning to be mean- why not?).
Tell them to get into the vegetable farm business (not meaning to be mean- why not?).
So...you're saying they should plant veggie crops now? Heading into winter in Scotland? :o ::) :D
Now....my own feelings on the issue at hand:
While I am glad that Sheep and Lamb's won't face a cruel death by being slaughtered....starving to death is a horrible inhumane alternative. Once again it comes down to being the fault of man/woman. If we did not "raise" animals as crops then perhaps they would only breed at a rate which is needed in order to sustain their species. Nature could take care of itself. The top predators would feed on the weak, and the animals would all be healthier in the long run. The food chain would work the way it was meant to. This problem has been caused by human greed and consumption, and I'm curious to see how us "humans" will solve this problem. I don't really have an answer as how to fix it.
Tell them to get into the vegetable farm business (not meaning to be mean- why not?).
So...you're saying they should plant veggie crops now? Heading into winter in Scotland? :o ::) :D
Now....my own feelings on the issue at hand:
While I am glad that Sheep and Lamb's won't face a cruel death by being slaughtered....starving to death is a horrible inhumane alternative. Once again it comes down to being the fault of man/woman. If we did not "raise" animals as crops then perhaps they would only breed at a rate which is needed in order to sustain their species. Nature could take care of itself. The top predators would feed on the weak, and the animals would all be healthier in the long run. The food chain would work the way it was meant to. This problem has been caused by human greed and consumption, and I'm curious to see how us "humans" will solve this problem. I don't really have an answer as how to fix it.
Oh I forgot. I never said I planted any ;D ;)
The trouble with veggie farming is that it doesn't really work terribly well on the hills where the sheep and cattle are for climatic reasons mainly - that's the reason the farmers turn to livestock farming (we are talking about Scotland here). I don't know of an article per se - I haven't really had time to look, but it was all over the politics and farming programmes this weekend. The idea of culling animals just because you can't afford to feed them and can't sell them either is horrific though, and this is coming from a non-vegan. The fact that some of them then want the government to compensate them for doing it is also bizarre. However, the thought of seeing lots of farmers going under, especially after the summer they have had already is also pretty awful.
We now also have something called the blue-tongue virus to contend with,which may also involve exclusion zones and the culling of cattle herds. Blue-tongue is often fatal to the animals, foot and mouth isn't though. They can recover. It's just that they lose condition and take a long time to make it up again and the farming community is not willing to take the economic hit that that involves. Although all the farmers I know are kind to their beasts and they are all hill-run, free-ranging, calves with their mothers etc., it's the commercial realities of livestock farming which are driving this. And none of it is changeable overnight. Like I say, confusing, disheartening and depressing. Be glad that you're not contributing to it.