The Sale, For Sheep
For sheep attending a sale, the experience is unlikely ever to be pleasant. The circumstance is unfamiliar to the sheep and of a type to - almost inevitably - bring stress to them and engender fear in them. The obligation of humans involved, therefore, is to see that they do everything they can to minimise unpleasantness for the sheep.
We should remember too that sheep will also have to endure travel to and from a sale.
The essential sale format is: arrival; transfer to a pen; going in and out of a sale ring; transfer to a pen, departure. The hard landscape for the process is: the pens themselves; the passageways and raceways; the sale ring itself; the areas surrounding the ring providing the auctioneer’s rostrum, space for standing, tiered seating. Flooring too is hard, but the ring will have a covering of sawdust, as may have some other areas of flooring.
Characterising the sale is speed. Journeying from pen to ring, ring to pen, sheep are kept on the move. Sheep are required to be moved about in the ring, to be displayed to all viewers and potential buyers. Once bidding for them is completed, sheep are needed to leave the ring quickly - so that the next lot of sheep can enter the ring. All this produces the potential for ‘moving on’ to be more important than taking best care of the sheep and treating them with the utmost gentleness. To be hemmed in by the hard material of the ring itself, with entrance and exit gates closed, and with a crowd of people surrounding - some standing and some on rising-up seating must be terrifying to sheep, and especially since they are seeing the sight from a level lower than humans do. And for a sheep in the ring, on its own, apart from humans, and without consolation and ‘protection’ from being with fellow sheep, being in the ring must be particularly frightening. The sheep must feel especial desperation and desire to try jumping out of the ring. It risks harming itself in leaping at the hard boundary.
Sometimes a show will precede a sale. For those sheep who participate in the show, they will have the processes of the show ‘for getting through’; therefore, an extra element to their day.
There are variations to the routine ‘sheep in the ring’ kind of sale. For example, a sale may happen in pens and outdoors. This must in many ways be less stressful to the sheep, provided they are not outside in pens for a long time when weather is hot or wet or cold. At the Kelso Ram Sales, very large event though it is, with many sale rings, each ring is in an individual marquee, largely open-sided, and with sheep who are awaiting selling in that particular ring being penned in that same marquee - and thus nearby company to those in the ring. The ring is composed of metal hurdles; only two small tiers are present for people to stand upon; and, of course, grass is underfoot. So, in all, not so ‘alien’ as a standard indoor sale ring.
There seems to be no dearth of legislation and regulation and advice concerning how livestock markets should be, and how they should operate. DEFRA’s guidance document ‘Livestock at farm shows and markets: welfare regulations’ (18th June 2019) represents a good summary of the situation overall. In the document is listed ‘the main legislation that governs animal welfare at shows and markets’. Provided is the information ‘Local authorities enforce health and welfare legislation at markets’. And explained in the document are the powers concerning markets of the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). DEFRA also has a 1990 publication Code of Practice – Welfare of Animals in Livestock Markets PB0409.
Key players in relation to livestock markets are the Livestock Auctioneers’ Association Limited (LAA), and the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA). The LAA, it says, ‘works to ensure that Livestock Auction Markets throughout England and Wales are working to the highest standards of health and safety and animal welfare, and complete and accurate traceability.’ It has a MartSafe Training Programme ‘for all staff within the Livestock Auction Market, from drovers to auctioneers, administrators to fieldsmen.’ The Units of the Programme are as follows: Animal Behaviour, Safe Handling, People Behaviour, Animal Welfare. The HSA provides a detailed guide Humane Handling of Livestock, the focus of which is ‘the handling of animals in markets’. The ‘Recommendations for Handling Animals in Markets : Moving Animals In/Around/Out of the Sale Ring’ poster from HSA and LLA (HSA & LLA Market Posters Series) is clear information for the animal handler in the sale ring.
It appears there is not a shortage of legislation, regulation and instruction on how livestock sales should be. But if there is a gap and difference between ‘what should be happening’ and ‘what is happening’, it needs addressing. Since a day at the sale is manifestly not nice for sheep, we must look for ways of improvement and amelioration. Selling sheep directly from farms - by using internet live-streaming for example - and therefore the sheep not needing to travel, or suffer the whole livestock sale process, could be an alternative selling method on occasions. Selling from pens or from grassy fields that have been sectioned up for the day, rather than in the sale ring, could make being sold a less tough and fearsome an experience for sheep. These are straws in the wind. For sheep’s sake, let us search for and find a much better way of selling of sheep than by the traditional ‘cockpit’ ring method.