-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old§ion=current&issu
e=2001-12-15&id=1410
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FEATURES
Unto us a lamb is given
Horatio Clare on the long and happy friendship that existed between
men and sheep before the present slaughter began SO far this year
we have slaughtered and burnt four-and-a-half million of them; it may
not be enough. We are planning to kill or castrate hundreds of
thousands more. The government is awarding itself powers to destroy
any it chooses, and no right of appeal will exist. We have declared
total war on sheep.
�Agnus Dei�, c. 1635�40 (oil on canvas) by Francisco de Zurbaran
(1598�1664) Prado, Madrid, Spain/Bridgeman Art Library
A relationship 2,000 years in the making has suddenly soured, and
there is no question who has come off worse: Humans, 4.5 million;
Sheep, one o.g. (A single slaughterman died during the killing, but
no sheep was blamed; rather one Keith Ward, another slaughterman, who
denies murder.)
It seems a good moment � perhaps a last chance � to look at the animal on the
receiving end of this unprecedented spree of interspecies violence. You ought at least
to know something about these creatures. You are paying
for their destruction (�2 billion in taxes so far this year), and your
great-grandchildren, coming across some antiquated storybook depicting smiling farmers
and patchwork fields, may well ask you what the white things we
re.
Historically, the deal between sheep and humans has been very simple: we fed and
looked after them, they fed and looked after us. Ten thousand years ago Central Asians
were wearing sheepskins and fleeces. Five-and-a-half
thousand years ago man learnt how to spin wool. There were small, primitive sheep in
Britain before the Romans arrived. They brought over the large white things, now known
as Cotswolds, which were to revolutionise the Bri
tish economy.
In the Middle Ages we treasured the sheep. You could eat it, wear it, write on it
(skins to parchment), drink from it, or treat it as a friendly, self-propelled cheese
factory. The mediaeval wool trade boomed to such an e
xtent that in the 14th century it provided half the Crown�s tax revenues. Churches,
halls and manors were paid for by sheep. They were our first international hot seller,
and we were not the only nation to benefit.
Cortez shipped sheep from Spain to South America, introducing them to North America in
1519. The success of sheep-farming among the North American colonists, and the
economic power it brought them, enraged the British gov
ernment. Amputation was introduced for �illegal� trading. Resentment at that, and the
Stamp Act, led to the Revolutionary War. In the 20th century, 60 per cent of
Australia�s exports came off the back of a sheep.
So, although it may look like an ignorant bundle of wool, its ancestors built nations
and started revolutions. Perhaps a little respect might be in order?
>From the sheep�s point of view, good farmers have been a blessing. Sure, we have a
>habit of eating their sons, but we have put millennia of care into the wellbeing of
>their daughters. My mother, a hill farmer of consummat
e skill, is still amazed at the variety of ways a sheep can find to die. Even the
hardy Welsh mountain breed with which I was brought up are susceptible to braxy, pulpy
kidney, staggers, pneumonia, pasturella, twin lamb d
isease, cancer, hypothermia in the winter, maggots in the summer, scab, scrapie,
foxes, crows and dogs.
They push their heads through fences and get stuck (the grass on the other side really
is greener: sheep invented the axiom). They climb trees to pick at foliage and get
hung up by their horns or legs. They fall down bank
s, get bitten by snakes and stung by wasps. They tumble into ponds and streams. They
gorge themselves on fallen ash leaves, roll on to their backs and blow up like
balloons. They poison themselves on ragwort. Rams� horns
regularly grow into their own heads, a lethal variation of the in-growing toenail.
They starve, freeze, get depressed and fall ill � but a good shepherd can counter
every affliction.
This extraordinary vulnerability and tendency to self-destruction made them the
perfect metaphor for man in Christianity. Jesus was the ultimate Good Shepherd, laying
down his life for his flock. Wherever the metaphor app
ears in Scripture, love, trust and sacrifice are invoked. Jesus himself was the Lamb
of God. The line of trust and succour from God to Jesus to man to sheep was
comprehensible and logical for 2,000 years; only in our gene
ration has it lost its force, as the shepherd gave way to the slaughterman.
The metaphor for humans is not as unflattering as it might appear. Every sheep has a
distinct character. For each fearful and stupid animal, there is a curious and
affectionate one. Every flock has its leaders: while the
rest panic at the appearance of humans and dogs, the leaders work out what you want
them to do, and, if it seems safe, they do it. Their confidence inspires the rest.
Although no one has ever claimed that sheep are intelligent animals, neither are they
fools. Some seem predisposed to stray. Once they learn that fences can be surmounted
by jumping or crawling, they are unstoppable. Stra
ys lead independent lives, rearing their lambs on the run. Incidents of sheep learning
to roll across cattle-grids are famously well documented.
They can be very playful. Lambs run races along the edges of fields. They love to
compete for King of the Castle: any ant-heap will do. My mother had a yearling (a
one-year-old) which had the habit of climbing on to the d
aily hay bale, apparently for the hell of it. She was evidently a joker, as most lambs
pass through the playful phase and enter a rather solemn period, when they eschew
games.
When newly shorn or dashing through a gate into fresh pasture, young sheep literally
jump for joy, springing into the air like pot-bellied antelopes. They form strong
attachments: best friends will stick together and reme
mber each other, seeking each other out after periods of separation.
Scientists have recently �revealed� that sheep can remember the faces of up to 50
other sheep, as well as their shepherd�s mug. This will not come as much of a surprise
to sheep or shepherds, who have known it for centuri
es. �Sheep must potentially be able to think about individuals that are absent from
their environment,� says Dr Keith Kendrick of the Babraham Institute, Cambridge. It�s
a fact, Dr Keith. When you wean lambs from ewes, bo
th mothers and children cry for days. Their memories last for at least two years,
according to the scientists; rather longer than some humans.
The telling phrase in the Babraham report, published in Nature, is that the test-sheep
were trained to recognise pairs of faces �using a food reward�. Sheep, as the
researchers have discovered, will do absolutely anything
for food.
Their emotional sympathy is extraordinary. Sheep sense human anger or frustration and
try to flee. Good shepherds move calmly and slowly among their flocks, and talk to
them. Sheep will answer. The ubiquitous bleat of the
hungry sheep is only one of many communications. There are cries of distress, which
any shepherd will recognise; whickering, affectionate noises to reassure lambs. There
are curious, interrogative grunts; whistles of ala
rm or hostility, and groans of pain when giving birth.
Anyone who thinks that sheep are cowards has never tried to capture a full-grown ram
for a spot of horn-shortening. A ewe will face down dogs or foxes when defending a
lamb, which is astonishingly courageous, considering
her complete lack of weaponry. And there is absolutely no doubt that they know when
death is upon them. When they believe all is lost, lambs go completely limp in the
hand.
So when Elliot Morley, the euphemistically titled minister for animal health,
announces another round of slaughter, spare a thought for the victims. As the
slaughterman closes in, and the faces of their 50 friends flash b
efore their eyes, the last face may well be that of the shepherd, accompanied by a
mournful question-mark. Where we used to cure, we now kill. It is a perverse end to a
beautiful friendship.
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