Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Other Animal welfare issues & petitons => Other Animal Petitions & Welfare & News => Topic started by: Garfield&Gypsy on February 11, 2008, 17:55:37 PM
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7239001.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7239001.stm)
This is so Cruel - 73 dead sheep and no sign of infectious disease! is this guy nuts!!! :censored: :censored: :censored:
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So upsetting :(
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:( >:( :(
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Something about sheep has been on my mind since I was on holiday last year and I am not sure if I should have/ sholuld report it.
We stayed on a remote Scottish island, we were they only folk stay ing in just one house.
We shared the island with 500 sheep, who seemed very wild. There were a few rams free to roam amongst the females. We also found quite a few skeletal remains of sheep and some carcuses. Near the house was a poor dead beast who had had its horns ripped off in a fight.
Whilst we were ther the shhep were sheared and the sheep near thehouse removed.
Would welcome any comments if this is usual practise in such locations or neglect.
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will preface this with the caveat that it is a farming perspective - not an animal welfare perspective.
Where the animals are kept on a remote island with no human supervision, there will be an inevitable 'attrition' of stock through competition and natural events. I can not imagine that if the animals are kept there they are under constant supervision, so this sort of thing would be normal. Sheep die. Whether from accident, natural causes, disease or predation, it happens. A farmer might consider a certain loss rate acceptable from an economic viewpoint and would only intervene if it was impacting on the viability of the flock as a whole.
From an animal welfare perspective: I would be concerned that the animals a) did not have regular oversight and b) were exposed to whatever perverse activities the tenants of the accommodation wished to visit upon them ...
Not an answer, more a discussion ...
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Thanks BC. The farmer who owns the sheep lives on another island. The house is owned by a family who only visit once a year. Because the sea is treacherous in those parts at times its impossible to get to the island.
I just wonder what happens at lambing times.
The sheep are very wary of people and seem almost wild. Not like the sheep on Harris who wander round in groups around Leverborough, they are very comical :evillaugh:
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yep, lambing would be difficult to predict with free range rams, so unless the rams are only released for a short period so that the farmer knows when the lambs will be born, then there is a strong probability they are left to their own devices - which may explain all the bones about the place. Did you note what sort of age-range was represented (big or small bodies?) because weakly lambs would probably die if unattended. I am afraid that is a fairly common occurrence where i come from as the sheep are generally roaming in thousand hectare paddocks, with no supervision ...
A good farmer might ride around once or twice a week to have a look, but most don't bother ... :(
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The island was quite big and we onlly saw bits of it. The dead sheep we saw were adult,I wondered if they died giving birth. There are quite a few eagles on Harris so its possible they could have picked off some young. There were several rams running around free. :(