I have just said goodbye to Button, our first year-old lamb.
He was a sweet-natured beast, and I was more affected by his departure than all of the other lambs that have left us ("left us" being, of course, a euphemism for "been sent off to the abattoir.") This is how most lambs live in the UK - at about a year old they are sent off for slaughter - but here we have become used, or at least come to be able to bear, the Catalan system of sending them off at 3 months old.
Strange how one's perception of the emotional impact is greater for an older sheep than for a just-weaned youngster. In both cases the only consolation is that these sheep lead the best possible life, and thus that the meat we eat is truly fair-traded.
He was a sweet-natured beast, and I was more affected by his departure than all of the other lambs that have left us ("left us" being, of course, a euphemism for "been sent off to the abattoir.") This is how most lambs live in the UK - at about a year old they are sent off for slaughter - but here we have become used, or at least come to be able to bear, the Catalan system of sending them off at 3 months old.
Strange how one's perception of the emotional impact is greater for an older sheep than for a just-weaned youngster. In both cases the only consolation is that these sheep lead the best possible life, and thus that the meat we eat is truly fair-traded.
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