Roy D has alerted me to this at the BBC:
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.
And who took this heinous and heartless decision? Ah, right ...
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. Tickets are being sold in shops in Lydd to raffle the meat. Money raised will go to buy pigs, from which sausages will eventually be made.
I think the children should be forced to vote again (and again) until they give the 'right' answer, don't you?
Comedian
1 hour ago
17 comments:
I'm surprised they didn't all want a bit of Marcus to take home for mum to cook.
Bet he would have tasted better than the crap from the supermarket, and that would've been a good lesson in the ethical husbandry of animals.
The kids aren't daft; they realise that the sooner Marcus gets done in, the sooner the pigs will arrive, then the BBQ can finally come out for the sausages...
Great that in a world where PCness, wrapping children in cotton wool & surprise that fighting wars involves people dying the children are, by 13 out of fourteen, so much more realistic than their parents.
Actually checking out the BBC despite the claim "Parents at a Kent primary school are angry" only 1 parent is named. So it may well be that +93% of parents are sensible too & that it is merely the media inventing mass popular protests that the masses have no part in.
H, SC, indeed. It's their lamb, after all.
NC, the BBC made a huge thing out of this on the telly and interviewed people who were for or against slaughtering Marcus. Surely that's not the point, this was a democratic decision taken by a vast majority of pupils, end of discussion, that's what irritates me.
Had they voted to keep him as a pet, well good luck to them, it's not anybody else's business, is it?
Not to worry, the problem has been resolved. One of our local residents' has come to the rescue
RG, I saw that as well. AFAIAA, lambs sell for about £50 each (other sources say anywhere between £10 and £100), so if they can screw a couple of grand out of Paul O'Grady who's prepared to overpay in order to get his name in the papers, then good luck to all concerned.
The school kids can then buy a dozen new ones and really go into business!
Sorry, but I have to chip in again after reading Royston's link.
So O'Grady thinks that it's ok for us to eat, for example, a pig that has perhaps been kept in appalling conditions, in a pen where it has spent it's whole life unable to turn round, kept constantly pregnant, never having seen the light of day etc..
Whereas it's not ok to eat a pig kept in a back yard environment, lovingly looked after and having enjoyed a reasonable life?
What a complete and utter toss-pot.
My children attend this school and although I want the whole world to be vegetarian like me its not going to happen, so as my kids have chosen to eat meat I would rather they learnt that its better to eat free range organic meat thats been looked after and had a happy life, than mass produced meat raised in cruel conditions. I want them to know where their food has come from. The way this is being handled the kids are going to think its wrong to eat free range food. The whole country is being encouraged to find out where their food comes from and go free range yet a few people have made our school look bad for it. The whole junior school were asked again this week and they all still chose to send the sheep (Who incidentally was never called Marcus but Market) to market. It is a very small minority who have started this protest one of whom actually brought raffle tickets! Now we have children who are upset that they might lose the farm they are so proud off, and are having threats to burn down our school.
Hi Candy.
It's not just the ethics. There's a payoff too.
It has been proven that the more stress you put an animal under, the more saturated it's fat becomes.
Lots of farm meat is 100% saturated fat. Wild meat, e.g. deer, rabbit, pheasant etc. is 100% unsaturated fat. A back yard pig will be 50/50.
So simply put, it is healthier for us and the animals to look after them properly.
(Not a dig at your vegetarianism. So you can educate the kids :))
Hi Hermit
I totally agree no dig taken I knew there was a difference in fat content but I didn't realise it was that much! I live with my 5 children 4 of whom eat meat and my partner who will shot wild meat for their dinner (strange mix with a vegetarian I know but we work together some how :)) With obesity on the rise in our country I want my children to be healthy so I will promote them eating a healthy diet along with plenty of exercise. This is one vegetarian who has brought raffle tickets to win half a lamb for her children. I just wish the press would actually report the truth not just one side. So many parents and children spoke to the news crews and papers in favour of the farm but that wasn't shown. I guess that doesn't sell the papers.
MW - I assume your solution is just what Ms Davies would want. Incidentally, I'm intrigued by the BBC report's use of the term 'cared for'- a loaded phrase if ever I saw one.
I'm assuming that a proportion of the pupils concerned come from families involved in sheep farming and have already grasped the concept of stock rearing and slaughter.
Their parents have my profound sympathy; life's tough enough for farmers already without this kind of media fuss.
Three cheers for the Headmistress!
There is one single thing that comes out of this story, and that is:
The MSM will gladly misrepresent the views of the people (according to candyflossfairycake's testimony, above) in order for a story!
The power of the 'Blog is nigh. Who would have thought that there would be a reader of this blog that actually lives in the area concerned - and actually has child at the school too.
MW: Keep up the good work, and keep on exposing those absurd MSM/Government/Fakecharity bullsh*t reports!
the protest was discrasfull making the kids they was there to protect walk on the roads to get to the school how can that be called protecting and putting kids 1st
FFS, now PETA got involved and the story has made the front page of the BBC News site!
Luckily the Head teacher didn't mess about and got Market (Marcus) to the abattoir in double-quick time!
RGD, I read he'd been sent off. What we now need to know is how many extra raffle tickets the kids sold on the back of this carefully orchestrated media campaign - this was product placement writ large!
I certainly do not agree that we should basically force children to agree with us and that our decision is right and they have no ability of making any decisions in life, that does not set them up very well for the world ahead does it? I personally think that this is the most rediculous and most blown out of proportion thing that I have ever heard or seen in my entire life! It is a lamb and it came from a farm, it is not a pet and my son was on the school council and he also believes that this is rediculous but not because I forced him to agree with me but because even being 11, he can see that's what it is, ridiculous!
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