Remark and Observation

Rebecca Bramwell Rebecca Bramwell

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.

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.

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Rebecca Bramwell Rebecca Bramwell

No Harm Done

The star element of the popular Winter Droving event held in the market town of Penrith in northern England has been the torchlight procession through the streets in darkness. After unavoidable cessation because of Covid, this year the procession was back. It took place last Saturday.

The star element of the popular Winter Droving event held in the market town of Penrith in northern England has been the torchlight procession through the streets in darkness. After unavoidable cessation because of Covid, this year the procession was back. It took place last Saturday. The big feature of the procession is illuminated lantern depictions of animals of the countryside. Sheep are represented - as the photographs of the procession in 2019 display.

The Winter Droving festival attracts around 20,000 people. By the method of the Winter Droving procession sheep have public spotlight, recognition and appreciation, but without actual sheep being present. Sheep have given spectacle and have received public notice and attention without attendance of any real sheep. Sheep have been a presence without having been present. No sheep have suffered any harm, stress and indignity from being in an unsuitable and unnatural-to-sheep environment. There is a lesson - of very wide application - for learning. 

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Rebecca Bramwell Rebecca Bramwell

Sheep Drive Revisited

The London Sheep Drive is an event whose concept derives from: Freemen of the City of London having had, in days gone by, the right to cross London Bridge without paying a toll; in the past, live sheep were driven over London Bridge into the City to market.

The London Sheep Drive is an event whose concept derives from: Freemen of the City of London having had, in days gone by, the right to cross London Bridge without paying a toll; in the past, live sheep were driven over London Bridge into the City to market. On 25th September I went to the 2022 Sheep Drive. Having attended the 2021 Sheep Drive and having been critical of it in an article (mattersofsheep.com), I wanted to go back this year to see if anything had changed.

The location was different; the Sheep Drive was on London Bridge whereas in 2021 it had been on Southwark Bridge. The Drive just occupied a wide pavement on one side of London Bridge. The framework of operation was a little different. Instead of two lanes being apportioned for sheep drives, only one lane was used - that going south. Alongside the lane for sheep-driving was another lane which acted as a service area: groups of Freemen and their guests waited in it to join their drive of sheep or departed into it from their completed drive; officials and official helpers were present for organising drive participants and for other duties. The entire flock of sheep for the Sheep Drive numbered approximately three dozen. In each individual drive there were about nine sheep. Sheep had rest periods when they were not being driven. As in the previous year, these were at bridge ends. Because drives were only southwards, sheep were herded back north across the bridge in a small corridor formed of bridge-side and a line of hurdles. Metal hurdles of various heights were the essential separators between lanes. The western boundary of the Drive was pavement edge, then tall hurdles, then permanent safety barrier, then bicycle lane, then vehicle lanes. The public could stand in the bicycle lane to view proceedings, as well as being able to watch events - and including seeing sheep in their rest times - from the bridge ends.

In the driving lane, behind sheep were the current drivers. In front of the sheep were the official helpers whose job was to walk, backwards, in front of the sheep with arms outstretched to give a barrier of containment to the sheep.

Compared to last year, the physical structure of the Sheep Drive was somewhat better this year. The event seemed to be better organised. The official helpers with the crucial role to walk ahead of the sheep, to contain them, seemed clear what they had to do and seemed organised in what they were doing.

Whatever change could be introduced to the Sheep Drive, would not be altered the fundamental, that the Sheep Drive is wrong - for sheep. These are the reasons.

The countryside is a sheep’s habitat. A normal day for a sheep is being in a field of pasture, eating grass, ruminating, resting. They see few people, and most of those whom they do encounter are known to them - their shepherd or farmer. The Sheep Drive takes sheep from their natural milieu and way of life. The Sheep Drive takes place in an urban setting. When sheep are brought to that urban situation they are deprived of what is natural to them. They are in an alien environment which does not give them what suits them and what they need. Moreover, it is a circumstance stressful to them. The sheep used in the Sheep Drive are in a city environment for a day lasting from before 9am until after 4pm. And throughout all that time they are surrounded by people - closely. Particular proximity comes from the sheep drives themselves because then the sheep are hemmed in. Behind them and facing them, and mostly at sides too, are people. The conclusion of a drive must be a particular stress point for the sheep. The ‘drivers’ have a, quite understandable, wish to have a photographic record of their unusual experience. A hurdle barricade and people in front of them stop the sheep going forward to get further away from the drivers. The drivers behind are taking photographs of themselves and each other with the sheep. And official helpers and drivers may be passing a phone camera right over the sheep if helpers are offering to take a picture of a driver with sheep.

Simply, the Sheep Drive is an inappropriate event. However worthy an organiser’s and participant’s aim, it is no justification at all for being uncaring towards sheep and putting them into an unsuitable, unnatural, and fear-inducing, circumstance. Is it either not noticed, or not chosen to be noticed, how very uncaring of a sheep it is to submit it to use and participation in the Sheep Drive?

On the Sheep Drive website of its host, the Worshipful Company of Woolmen, one of the couple who provide the sheep for the Sheep Drive opines ‘The sheep will … be used to seeing the public and the noises that go with it and happy to be in London for a few hours.’

I doubt it.


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Rebecca Bramwell Rebecca Bramwell

Dogs

Dogs are ‘man’s best friend’. Dogs are not sheep’s best friend. Dogs’ instinct is to ‘go for’ sheep. Sheepdogs are so very trained that the tendency is contained and dog’s closeness to sheep is under strict control. Of the rest of dogs, a proportion are not restrained by their owners from ‘going for’ sheep.

Dogs are ‘man’s best friend’. Dogs are not sheep’s best friend. Dogs’ instinct is to ‘go for’ sheep. Sheepdogs are so very trained that the tendency is contained and dog’s closeness to sheep is under strict control. Of the rest of dogs, a proportion are not restrained by their owners from ‘going for’ sheep. Sheep, as prey animals, can do nothing to defend themselves, other than rush away or stand together to try to look fierce. The risks to sheep from dogs are stress, injury, death.

Dogs are their owners’ responsibility. So, if dogs are not stopped from worrying sheep, it is because their owners are failing to stop them. One reason for the failure can be that owners are not training dogs adequately. But often the reason seems to be that owners have not much desire or motivation to keep back their dogs from sheep. Can this be because dog owners see their dogs as of far more worth and importance than sheep? Is a hierarchy of value present whereby sheep are viewed as lesser beings than dogs? And, moreover, is there an owner outlook of ‘I’ll do what I want’ rather than what is in the best interests of sheep?

As an example, is it kind or sensible to take a dog - albeit that it is on a lead - near sheep in pens at a show? The sheep are stressed by the circumstance anyway. Why choose to add to the sheep’s discomfort by bringing a dog in close proximity to them? Are the sheep not cared about?

 

With dog ownership on the increase, and, it would seem now, a growing tendency for a dog walker to have several dogs with them at a time, the urgent necessity is for strong and full addressal of the issue of sheep worrying.

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Rebecca Bramwell Rebecca Bramwell

Good and Bad

This year is being good and bad for sheep. 

A good thing is that in the UK, the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 - in its legal recognition that vertebrates, cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans are sentient - recognises sheep’s sentience. It is to be hoped that the fact that sheep feel pain, fear and joy, will now be accepted across the world.

This year is being good and bad for sheep. 

A good thing is that in the UK, the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 - in its legal recognition that vertebrates, cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans are sentient - recognises sheep’s sentience. It is to be hoped that the fact that sheep feel pain, fear and joy, will now be accepted across the world.

Ban Live Exports : International Awareness Day was on 14th June. Compassion in World Farming held a rally in Parliament Square. Its leaflet for ‘Hell Tours’ from ‘Your #1 Animal Travel Agency’ outlined what a trip to Europe includes:

‘Accommodation - Towering trucks and “vintage” vessels hardly changed since their use as cargo ships in the 70s

Temperature control - Won’t vary outside of 0 to +35 degrees Celsius!

Long-haul dining - Clean water provided but access to food limited

Special care - Weak, pregnant, and unweaned passengers are welcome

Health care – One inspector for thousands of guests’

Two days before, a live export ship carrying 15,800 sheep - several thousand more than the ship’s load limits - to Saudi Arabia sank leaving a Sudan port. Only about 700 of the sheep survived, but they were ill and not expected to live for long.

An end to live export of animals from England, Scotland and Wales for fattening or slaughter is in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill. The Bill started going through the UK Parliament in June 2021 but it still has a way to go, so might it be that government commitment to what the Bill addresses is now not strong?

In 2022 it has been shown that climate change is a reality. There has been drought. There have been floods. Both bringing threats to sheep’s well-being. In places across the world, pasture has not been green and juicy but dry, and so supplementary feeding has been necessary. Wildfires threaten injury, even death, to sheep. Floods bring danger to sheep of drowning.  

As Dickens said, ‘best of times … worst of times’.

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