School Sheep Project

Anger over school sheep slaughter

(From the U.K.) Parents at a Kent primary school are angry that a sheep hand-reared by pupils is to be slaughtered for meat.

Meat from neutered male Marcus, one of three sheep cared for at a farm set up in the spring at Lydd Primary School, is to be raffled to buy more animals. Mother Jo Davis said it was a disgrace that the sheep fed by hand by her eight-year-old daughter Megan was to be slaughtered and sold.

Head teacher Andrea Charman said the school council voted for the slaughter.

Ms Charman started the farm, which also has rabbits, guinea pigs, cockerels and ducks, after she joined Lydd Primary in January.

The lambs were bottle-fed by the children and taken into assembly.

Last term the school council, made up of 14 seven to 11-year-olds, voted 13 to one in favour of sending Marcus to slaughter rather than keeping him. Read More

We all know that there is a disconnect between consumers and food producers, but this article is a good example of that. In this situation in the U.K., there are some parents that don’t want their kids to learn about the cycle of life. Trying to block the raffle of the meat that came from the sheep they raised is an effort to only let the kids learn half the story. Let’s remember that the kids weren’t going to have to witness the harvest of the animal, they just want to raffle off the meat to help fund their program. The success of life depends on death and when are kids are shielded from this law of nature, we do them a disservice.