In the Sale Ring

Time at a sale must be stressful for sheep. Most likely the most stressful part of the process is the time in the sale ring.

When a sheep enters a sale ring it goes into what has been rendered a closed space. The entry gates are shut behind the animal, the exit gates are shut. Around that space is tiered seating, with people on it. In the ring with the sheep are handlers/steerers. To the sheep, from its height and level of view, it must seem as though it is in an arena pretty much inescapable from. For noticing is that in the Humane Association report of 2019 (‘Livestock Markets 200 Years On’ by C. W. Mason and S. E. Richmond), it is said that in the sale-ring there should be ‘Clearly visible (to animal) exit gate’.

Along with this are the other circumstances. The ring is an area which is new and unfamiliar to the sheep. There is noise, the loud sound of the auctioneer’s voice over microphone, the bang of the auctioneer’s hammer, the clanking of ring gates as they are opened and shut at entry and exit times, the talk and conversation of all present.

To any sheep in the ring the sudden experience of being ‘projected’ into all this must be unpleasant and frightening. To a group of sheep in a ring, though they are in a circumstance of suffering, there is probably some slight amelioration to the circumstance: this is in that they can get closely together and so be in - to their sense - a unit giving a bit of protection. They have consolation of being ‘all in it together’. The lone sheep in the ring has no such benefit. Solo sheep in a ring seem to be the ones whose level of fear is so great that they may try, frantically and desperately, to escape, jumping at, and trying to leap over, closed metal gates and the ‘wall’ of the ring: and thus putting themselves at risk of injury and harm.