The accepted view of sheep is that they are countryside residents. But a traditional necessity has been for sheep to go to town, to be sold, live, or in form of meat. This is notwithstanding that some markets or marts do exist, or have in the past existed, in rural places. Towns, cities, urban areas are by their nature places of gathering - at varying size levels - of different types of people and elements. And for a commercial transaction in relation to sheep to occur most well and fruitfully for buyer and seller, and too for livelihood to be obtained by a panoply of associates - salesmen and auctioneers, drovers, transporters etc -, to have a centre which brings together all concerned is required.

Wool is a dilemma.

The fleece of the sheep needs to be shorn annually, for the sheep’s welfare. Shearing, however, puts the sheep at risk of injury from not being handled carefully enough during the fleece shearing process.

Nowadays the shearing and packing of a fleece can cost more than the price that can be obtained for it.

Over a long past, wool was a desirable commodity. More recently wool has struggled in appeal compared with entirely human-made fibres - these latter having the attraction that they are very practicable to produce and, usually, to maintain also.

Nowadays, sheep are frequently depicted - on greetings cards and in artworks, as knitted, wooden and suchlike items primarily for the gift and tourist trade, and in books, films and, television - in a cartoon way. Why is this? What’s so funny?

Humans suffer. And some religions’ focus on suffering - such as Christianity’s crucifixion of Christ on the Cross, and Buddhism’s view of suffering as core in life and human-caused - promote awareness of this. Animals suffer. The Cambridge Dictionary portrays specifically that they do, giving the meaning of suffering as ‘physical or mental pain that a person or animal [my italics] is feeling’.

There seem to be three viewpoints from which the lamb is seen. These are religious, pragmatic, romantic.

The religious, specifically Christian, perspective on the lamb is as The Lamb of God/Agnus Dei, representing Christ.

The pragmatic outlooks are those of the sheep farmer - who sees the lamb as a product, to render income, and of the consumer - a public that wishes for lamb-obtained products of meat, milk, wool, and skin.

Together, the music by J S Bach and words by Salomon Franck ‘Sheep may safely graze’ are well known. They express a lovely sentiment. But the reality is somewhat different. In actuality, sheep may NOT safely graze. Why is this?

The lives of sheep, in common with every living creature on earth, are open to hazards. Accident, illness, etc, are part of existence. And, certainly, sheep are prone to a lot of different diseases. But there are some particular hazards to which sheep are open in the context of grazing.