Here, ‘lost’ in relation to sheep will be discussed as two different meanings. One is the ‘cannot find the way’ and ‘cannot be found’ meaning. The other is ‘lost before completion of what would be expected as the natural span of life’.
Sheep, in the first interpretation, can become lost in the senses of ‘not knowing where they are’, or ‘not being able to find their way back to companions or base’. Sometimes it will be their fault, other times it will be the fault of those bearing responsibility for looking after them. Sheep, as flock animals, if they become separated from their fellows, will experience stress from being solo. And since they tend to follow what sheep in front of them do, they will suffer further stress due to confusion about what choices to make. Sheep are, too, prey animals, and, once alone, since they will no longer have the protection of being among a group, they will become more vulnerable to predators.
The generalisation would be to say that sheep in a field, in some kind of housing, in a pen or trailer etc, would not be liable to getting lost. But ‘grass being greener’ or other motivations can put sheep in mind to want to break loose and escape. Sheep can be quite good escapologists. And they can perhaps, too, vanish more and further than they maybe realised or intended, and then are unable to find their way back to base. Or a sheep farmer can leave fencing/hedging/walling in a not good enough state to restrain sheep from getting through, out and away.
For sheep put out on such as open fell or moorland, where the grazing area is extensive, there are risks of getting lost through inadvertent separation from fellows by being spread out over a large area. And undulations and clefts in a landscape can render a sheep not to be human -seen or -noticed.
Of course, sheep do not remain lost if they are found, and surely to rejoicing. Jesus’ parable portrays the essential scenario:
’Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.” ’ (Gospel of Luke Chapter 15, verses 4-6).
Obviously therefore, to be successfully found, a sheep needs to be searched for, and fast, since as has been depicted, sheep are not conformed for successful single living. Also, some with close familiarity with sheep, for example the sheep farming and shepherding community, perceive that sheep ‘give up’ easily.
Away-from-base, rough, steep land, permeated with natural dangers such as crannies, rock faces, etc, and moreover which sheep can be placed out amongst for considerable expanses of time, can bring sheep to be being ‘lost’ in the sense of dying - from injury, exposure to bad weather, being trapped under snow, etc.
This leads us to ‘lost’ in the second meaning. That is the sense of dying, and before the natural time. The natural span of life of a sheep is generally accepted to be 10-12 years. So, what brings sheep to be lost, to die, before then?
To the farming world, sheep are a commodity. Farming of sheep is done to derive income from the sheep. In mainstream sheep farming, the sheep’s purposes are to be food, to give skin, to provide wool, to deliver milk, to breed. The uses for the sheep govern their life, how it pans out, what its length is. To be food, a sheep’s life is very short as lamb, longer as mutton. Whenever skin is obtained from a sheep its life is ended. For as long as it is being a good and untroublesome breeder, a sheep lives. In essence, treatment, procedure, and management of lamb and sheep will be governed by product objectives. Processes and styles of sheep-raising will be conditioned by what brings best product rather than what keeps long sheep life.
Going into the mix is that, as the National Animal Disease Information Service [NADIS] Disease A-Z for Sheep portrays, sheep are prone to many diseases. And as has already been indicated, sheep are easily stressed. They can die from stress. And, as has also been said, sheep are prey animals. Dog worrying can cause loss of sheep, both due to the dog giving sheep stress and by the dog attacking sheep and giving injury to cause death.
Two quotes below give an indication of the sort of things that could lead a sheep to become dead. The organisation Animal Aid, describing ‘The suffering of farmed sheep’, says:
‘As a result of the burdens put on sheep, they suffer endemic lameness, miscarriage, infestation and infection. Each year, around one in 20 adult sheep die of cold, starvation, sickness, pregnancy complications or injury before they can be slaughtered. Often, they will die before a farmer even realises anything is wrong. Lambs who do survive are usually killed for food at around four months old.’
The World Animal Foundation in its ‘Wool - Farm Animals Facts & News’ (May 14th, 2021) says this:
‘Australian sheep suffer over 50 million operations a year that would constitute cruelty if performed on dogs or cats. Extremely high rates of mortality are considered “normal”: 20-40 percent of lambs die at birth or before the age of eight weeks from cold or starvation; eight million mature sheep die every year from disease, lack of shelter, and neglect. One million of these die within 30 days of shearing.’
In essence, the main elements likely to put at risk the continued existence of a sheep are these:
first hours and days of birth, and the later stages of ‘lambhood’;
injury;
disease;
bad or unsuitable conditions;
procedures, including shearing;
lack of food, water, nutrition;
insufficient attention;
long live transportation;
worrying from dogs.
In the case of sheep being ‘lost', dying unexpectedly early, the cause needs to be established.
Sheep farming is a business. To the sheep farmer, the sheep represents an item to deliver income. The sheep farmer’s entity of use is a living creature, and whom is depending upon that person for care and choices about its existence. It can be asked whether, in the context that the sheep farmer is looking to gain livelihood from sheep, they alway make decisions that are in the best interests of the sheep, and the rest of the flock, rather than in their own best interests?
A decision to make a sheep ‘lost’, as in to have it killed, or leave it to die, can on occasions be the right decision and on humane grounds.
If a sheep is missing in the hills, or is unwell or sickly, are the decisions made hard-headedly whether, respectively, to look long and conscientiously for the missing one, to bring in a costly vet and/or give expensive and time-consuming treatment for the ailing one?
It can be that there may not always be positive decisions at all, but rather there can be ‘sins of omission’ in that what should be, or could be, being done is not done.
And decisions may just be bad. Like putting a sheep in an unsafe or unsuitable environment.
In a context of the economic imperative ruling, it can be seen that the order of the day in sheep farming is likely to be decisions being made on grounds of pragmatism. Decisions would be arrived at on basis of whether something ‘is worth it’ or whether it is ‘worth the bother’. Rather, should not the requirements for the welfare of a sheep - that gentle animal who trusts the sheep farmer for their care - be placed first and foremost?
If the context is desire for cost-effectiveness, it can be imagined that ‘calls’ are not easy. But ‘calls’ made which lead unnecessarily to premature death or cull of sheep, are deeply regrettable. In a civilised society, no sheep should by a human be allowed to get lost or be made to become lost, unless these outcomes are not possible to be avoided.
22nd June 2021