Sheep and City Farms
City farms have usually been set up with worthy objectives. They will be looking to serve their local community, to give information and education about food and farming, to involve people, to help them, to give quality and improvement to their lives. They aim to be accessible.
Admission to a city farm will likely be free, with any charges being for extras of some kind. Support may come from a local authority - and therefore the public sector. Probably there will be grants from trusts and foundations, and some funding from companies and other donors. A city farm may have been established in less financially straightened times than nowadays, and may be particularly struggling economically at present.
An essential likelihood is that a city farm will be not adequately resourced, financially, but also in terms of land, staff, and expertise. In a city context, enough quantity and suitable quality of land for a city farm will probably be unable to be obtained. A staff of sufficient number, and representing all necessary knowledge areas, will maybe not be able to be provided because of insufficient funding. Part of the work may be done by volunteers. Potentially, a city farm will be trying to do too much, and will be spreading itself too thinly.
The huge danger, if it is in a context of under-resourcing, is if a city farm has animals. While if it has no animals, an under-resourced city farm can delay a task, or shut down an element until ‘better times’; if it has animals - live creatures - it needs always to be giving them the right amount, type, and calibre of resource, care, and attention. The animals’ welfare is paramount.
Sheep are among those animal types which are often placed at city farms. City farms, in their context of vying for space in areas where, generally, land is at a premium, and at a premium price, are liable to end up occupying space not truly large enough for their requirements and which is not of best quality. Animals at city farms may be placed on land which is too small for them and not right and suitable in other respects. Sheep are creatures of the countryside. They need pasture to stand on and to eat, and enough of it. They are nervous animals. They are not used to being in close proximity to a lot of people. It will be stressful to them if dogs, their predators, are nearby. They need to be cared for by people who are knowledgeable about sheep, their ways, their needs, the diseases and ailments that they can suffer.
To put sheep - any animals - on a city farm is unlikely to serve those creatures’ best interests. Should it be decided to keep sheep there, then the city farm is obliged to ensure that the welfare and well-being of the live creatures is totally attended to - to the highest standard.