“During the course of a Sunday lunch we happened to look out of the kitchen window at our young lambs playing happily in the fields. Glancing at our plates, we suddenly realized that we were eating the leg of an animal who had until recently been playing in a field herself. We looked at each other and said, “Wait a minute, we love these sheep–they’re such gentle creatures. So why are we eating them?” It was the last time we ever did.”
Linda and Paul McCartney
If you have time for nothing else please take the following action to help sheep:
Please take the following recommended action concerning the Italian wool industry:
Italian Wool Exposed: Sheep Kicked, Cut, and Killed
http://investigations.peta.org/sheep-killed-italian-wool/
There are more actions you can take to help sheep further down. Please take as many as you can.
Spring is here – well if you live in the northern hemisphere it is. Nothing says spring more than baby animals, particularly lambs, though sadly the fate of these tiny creatures mars the pleasure of seeing these sweet gentle beings frolicking in meadows and uplands here in the British countryside. It breaks your heart to know that soon these innocent helpless creatures will be taken from their mothers and brutally slaughtered to provide meat eaters with a food that they do not need and is not natural.
The life of a tiny lamb is short, in general only about four months unless he or she is required for breeding. Some are killed after only 10 weeks, a cruel end to a life which begins with such exuberant joy.
“I do not like eating meat because I have seen lambs and pigs killed. I saw and felt their pain. They felt the approaching death. I could not bear it. I cried like a child. I ran up a hill and could not breathe. I felt that I was choking. I felt the death of the lamb.”
Vaslav Nijinsky
Watch the Life of a Lamb in 60 seconds.
Warning! very shocking images of cruelty.
Linda and Paul McCartney
If you have time for nothing else please take the following action to help sheep:
Please take the following recommended action concerning the Italian wool industry:
Italian Wool Exposed: Sheep Kicked, Cut, and Killed
http://investigations.peta.org/sheep-killed-italian-wool/
There are more actions you can take to help sheep further down. Please take as many as you can.
Spring is here – well if you live in the northern hemisphere it is. Nothing says spring more than baby animals, particularly lambs, though sadly the fate of these tiny creatures mars the pleasure of seeing these sweet gentle beings frolicking in meadows and uplands here in the British countryside. It breaks your heart to know that soon these innocent helpless creatures will be taken from their mothers and brutally slaughtered to provide meat eaters with a food that they do not need and is not natural.
The life of a tiny lamb is short, in general only about four months unless he or she is required for breeding. Some are killed after only 10 weeks, a cruel end to a life which begins with such exuberant joy.
“I do not like eating meat because I have seen lambs and pigs killed. I saw and felt their pain. They felt the approaching death. I could not bear it. I cried like a child. I ran up a hill and could not breathe. I felt that I was choking. I felt the death of the lamb.”
Vaslav Nijinsky
Watch the Life of a Lamb in 60 seconds.
Warning! very shocking images of cruelty.
Video From Animal Animal Equality: http://www.animalequality.net/node/683
This was filmed in farms and slaughter houses in Italy, but much the same happens worldwide. Though the campaign, which was to reduce lamb consumption in Italy for Easter 2015, is a couple of years old the problem of course remains and with the approach of Easter yet more innocent tiny lambs will meet the same fate.
If you eat meat and consume lamb it is likely on average you will have been responsible for the death of 23 lambs in your lifetime.
Lambs just like this one
or the adorable lamb in the video further down who is now safe in a sanctuary.
How about knit wear made from wool, even lambs wool?
Lambs have so little wool so please do not think that someone comes along with a pair of shears and gently cuts their fleece. Lambs wool is of course always taken from slaughtered lambs. Adult sheep inevitably suffer the same fate, even though they may be sheared for a few years prior to slaughter eventually they will be killed for meat. In the meantime other than provide wool, a ewe’s main purpose is to give birth every year until they are too old to do so, at which time they too will be mercilessly killed. Ewes are sent to slaughter from four to eight years old when their breeding days are over.
What of rams? Ever wondered why you see so few rams?
Usually there are about 38 ewes to one ram.
Ram lambs not required for mating are killed within a day or two after being born – they will never smell the sweet air of spring or leap and play in the fields.
Wool and meat are all the products of the slaughter and other abuse of a gentle defenceless animal who wishes to live as much as you or I.
Shearing is often a brutal savage experience as you will see in the following video.
Watch Wool in 60 Seconds Flat. Warning very shocking images
of cruelty
Video From: PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
If you buy a garment made of wool you support a cruel and bloody industry. There is no excuse, there are plenty of synthetic fibres many of which are in my opinion warmer than wool, easier to care for and are more durable. However even if this was not so, there is never any justification for such cruelty to another sentient being. Wool belongs to lambs and sheep. It evolved to protect them from severe weather, their fleece effectively providing insulation against both cold and heat. At one time prior to human interference sheep grew just enough wool to protect them from extreme temperatures, they naturally shed their wool in warmer weather.
Read about the cruelty that lies behind the wool industry including museling :
“In Australia, where more than 50 percent of the world’s merino wool—which is used in products ranging from clothing to carpets—originates, lambs are forced to endure a gruesome procedure called “mulesing,” in which huge chunks of skin are cut from the animals’ backsides, often without any painkillers.”
Read More and please click the Action Button
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/wool-industry/
It all seems so idyllic when you see tiny lambs gambolling on a warm summer’s day and you see all the hype on TV and elsewhere about lambing.
The truth of the matter is much different.
Did you know that rather than being born in the spring as the farming industry would have you believe, millions of lambs are born in January when it is bitterly cold and when a million of these babies die of hypothermia. This is done to provide meat eaters with lamb for Easter. Over the years farmers have interfered with the natural breeding cycle. High prices are paid for Easter lamb and many farmers have changed this cycle so that lambs are born earlier.
Read about the truth that lies behind sheep farming that the BBC’s popular Lambing Live programme glosses over .
“Although many see it as the ultimate in free-range farming, the seemingly idyllic scene of a ewe and her lambs grazing is misleading. These animals spend their entire lives under human control. Behind the pastoral image lies an industry that relies on the mutilation of baby animals – and where life for many sheep and lambs is short and filled with pain, disease and fear.”
Lambing Lies Fact Sheet
http://www.viva.org.uk/resources/campaign-materials/fact-sheets/lambing-lies-fact-sheet
Meet Lucky the Lamb:
http://www.viva.org.uk/what-we-do/our-work/sheep-and-lambs
Action to take.
Don’t buy wool, without exception it is a product of cruelty and death.
Go Vegan and help others to do so.
Click the following link to ORDER A FREE ACTION PACK
Each year in Britain over 14 million sheep are slaughtered for the meat trade. Around half of those are lambs under a year old.
http://www.viva.org.uk/form/order-free-action-pack
Please take the following recommended action concerning the Italian wool industry if you have not already done so:
Italian Wool Exposed: Sheep Kicked, Cut, and Killed
http://investigations.peta.org/sheep-killed-italian-wool/
My husband and I are regular visitors to the Yorkshire Dales and Moors and the Durham Dales. It is a delight in spring to see the mothers with their curious playful lambs. They ‘re so full of joy, skipping and jumping or lying close to one another in the summer sunshine. This is of course in April or later. Earlier in the year it is a sad experience to see these tiny lambs huddled near their mothers who also are struggling to survive against the cold of winter, yes I have seen lambs as early as January and most certainly by mid February and early March when the wind can be bitter with driving rain, sleet and snow. The Yorkshire Moors and Dales are beautiful scenic places and on a visit in spring or summer many people are oblivious to the realities of this harsh climate in which these fragile animals have to endure. The lucky ones who survive, if lucky is indeed the correct word, will in a few short months be rounded up and taken to slaughter. There is definitely a different feel to the place when all these tiny beings so full of life are taken away. One weekend you can be driving through or hiking and see hundreds of lambs and their mothers and the following week the hills are bare of these baby creatures, only the mothers remain to face another autumn when once gain they are impregnated and endure the whole miserable cycle again.
Lambs are beautiful creatures, gentle often friendly. We have had lambs and sometimes their mothers come up to us curious about us as we are about them, though the mothers can be very protective of their offspring and you can be met with loud angry bleats. So unless they readily approach you when hill walking it is best to leave them alone as many sheep are timid creatures.
Lambs and sheep of course are sentient like your dog or your cat:
“Sheep show compassion! Form bonds!
Judge for yourself.
Jeffery Massom in this book The pig who Sang to the Moon tells the story of Rammo, ” a macho two-year old Ramouillet ram” who formed a special and compassionate bond with Whisper, a cow who was born blind.
“Rams tend to be loners, and he was a pretty tough ram, so it seemed unusual that he would take up with a blind member of another species. But he did”
“He would graze next to her all day and guide her about the field, making certain she did not bump into the fence or posts…When she had a calf , Shout, sired by an Angus bull, Rammo behaved paternally toward the young animal, more so than even to his own offspring, several bouncy lambs. Whisper lived to be four years and than died in 1996 of a viral infection. Rammo mourned her a long time, standing by her dead body, calling and calling”
Read more about sentience in Sheep:
http://www.think-differently-about-sheep.com/Sentient%20sheep.htm
Look at the video of this adorable lamb, surely there can be no doubt that this little animal is a thinking, feeling, aware being.
Related Links
Read more about the cruel abuse of sheep and lambs :
“Each year over 4 million sheep die of cold and hunger, the complications of pregnancy, injury, infestation and illness such as pneumonia and exposure. Each year one million lambs die of exposure. Often blamed on foxes, in reality the high losses are the direct result of neglect and exploitation by farmers themselves.”
“The life of a tiny lamb is short, in general only about four months unless he or she is required for breeding. Some are killed after only 10 weeks. Ram lambs not required for mating are killed within a day or two after being born. Ewes are killed from four to eight years after their breeding days are over. The meat from older sheep is called mutton and is less popular than lamb and used for processed foods.”
http://www.think-differently-about-sheep.com/Animal-Rights-Sheep.htm
Horrifying truth of wool industry laid bare as sheep are skinned alive in undercover video:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/horrifying-truth-wool-industry-laid-8155711
A wool jumper is just as cruel as a mink coat:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/a-wool-jumper-is-just-as-cruel-as-a-mink-coat-9610133.html
First Published for my blog Rantings From a Virtual Soapbox:
https://rantingsfromavirtualsoapbox.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/lambs-the-cruel-side-of-spring/