Got a Baby Lamb!!! what do I do??

Buttonmoons

Actually the more I read this thread the more I think it's a bad idea!

I mentioned it to my OH and he said it was cruel and illegal.

From reading the comments I guess it is illegal! I've never really been around livestock, except when I visit OH's mum, I sneak over and stroke the cows (yes I know I will probably get ringworm but they are cool!) Oh and the had pigs for a while too but I didn't like them, they kept headbutting the door to get to me, clearly smelled throat lozenges and wanted em, or just wanted to eat me!

I saw Gordon Ramsey kept lambs, and he got a pair if I remember correctly, and he had to build some thingy for them to jump around on, and they jump pretty high.

I dunno, I showed my DD the picture of the lamb (3) and she said "Awww cute, can we get one" I said that no, they are for eating and she said "Noooo you can't kill him, he will cry!"

So clearly, he will cry if you eat him.....

~Chameleon~

Buttonmoons wrote: »

Actually the more I read this thread the more I think it's a bad idea!

I mentioned it to my OH and he said it was cruel and illegal.

From reading the comments I guess it is illegal!

I suspect what the OP is doing is illegal. She appears not to have registered the lamb with DEFRA and got him tagged or have any legal paperwork (both needed if using a licensed abattoir) and she claims her FIL is a butcher and he will apparently despatch and butcher the lamb.

As to where the lamb originally came from is anyone's guess. A gift or rustled? ... who knows!

What I do know though is by keeping it on it's own and not allowing it access to sufficient grazing, grass or hay, is extremely cruel and if I knew where it was I'd have no hesitation in reporting her.

geminilady

Juliepink26 wrote: »

When the time comes my daughter will be under the impression that he is going back to grandad, from the start I have told her that we are only looking after him while granddad is away. We have talked about him being for food and we have had lots of food related talk, today she asked if eggs come from chickens, then as we were walking past the meat section she asked what all the dirffent things were, then went on to ask if olive oil comes from olives..

regarding the relative, you dont have a clue.. lol.. someone who has spent 45 years in the business will have friends in all areas from farm to plate...

So you are lying to your daughter,if as you say you want to teach her about the food chain you are defeating the object,the lamb is not going back to grandad you are going to slaughter and eat it.You may have talked about him being for food but dare not stipulate he will be YOUR food a tad hypocritical i would say.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Legal Stuff from the DEFRA website:

EID is not mandatory for sheep which are intended for slaughter within 12 months of age. The slaughter lamb derogation allows the use of a single non-electronic slaughter batch tag, or a single electronic tag. Also animals identified under this derogation will not need to be individually recorded and can continue to be moved and recorded on a batch basis. This rule also applies to animals born or identified before 31 December 2009.

I am making assumptions here (Aren't we all?) - that the OP's family is Greek Cypriot - and from the people I know, I think it wouldn't be hard to find a Greek butcher who knows a farmer who knows a licensed slaughterman, whether it be a common or garden mobile slaughterman or, in North London, one authorised in Halal or Kosher slaughter (for which, yes I know the animal has to be transported to a slaughterhouse and therefore carry two tags).

I don't believe that all rural Cypriot children grow up traumatised by seeing animal slaughter, any more than many of us would be damaged forever by a salmon being swiftly dispatched by a wallop with a priest. Many people know that there is plenty of debate about the kindest way to deal with a live lobster, whether to freeze it, sever the brain stem, induce tonic immobility or to just chuck it in boiling water. Death happens to provide food, whether after an average life in the wild of avoiding being eaten alive, a pampered existence with a smallholder ended by the visit of a slaughterman's van or after a hellish existence in the hot, stinking twilight of a commercial intensive farm, followed by a nightmare journey in terror, miles to a commercial abattoir.

Those of us who are uncomfortable with the idea will buy meat/fish in plastic trays and close their eyes, buy food farmed to a higher welfare standard or go veggie/vegan.

TBH, factory farming, even when obeying every single rule in existence, is infinitely crueller in my eyes than this. I know what sheep are like (and I personally prefer cattle, although goats can be funny and chickens are ridiculous as evil masterminds, but they keep trying), as I suspect the OP does (and not just the usual description of an animal completely devoid of any common sense or instinct for self-preservation).

I think that there wasn't a better place to post asking for advice - perhaps she would have been better searching for a practical smallholders' website - I can see how people would find it offensive to be posted in the pets section - but she would have received similar replies even had she not said it was ultimately going to be eaten. Just like the head who started the school farm had death threats.

Whether or not I am prepared to raise animals for meat in the home or not, I don't think it is fair to automatically assume that the OP is a sheep rustling lamb abuser, intent on breaking all the laws possible just so the creature can be more unhappy - and those who find the idea of halal or kosher slaughter so offensive should remember that the intention behind it is to minimise the suffering of the animal and ensure that healthy food enters the food chain - just because you disagree with it doesn't necessarily make it intentional animal abuse.

I think that the OP is well intentioned. Well, as much as you can be when you're working out whether you're going to cut the chunks big for souvlaka or small for souvlaki...

Fire_Fox

As always, JoJo the voice of reason. :T

creased-leach

Anyway, did someone say Klefico?

hethmar

"DIET has started...:cool:
Goal to lose 22lb...:eek::D Lost so far 14lb - 7lb to go"


As the OP says she is already overweight I wonder just what else she has had sitting on her sofa waiting to be consumed.

Im sorry but it just is beyond my comprehension - very strange behaviour as far as I am concerned.

Fire_Fox

That is a really nasty thing to say, Hethmar.

slummymummyof3

My MIL used to breed chicken and ducks for eggs and general consumption (they had a small holding) - she used to take great delight in describing to me exactly which duck it was we were eating. I couldn't bear it when I could actually associate the meat with a particular animal I had seen strutting around the day before and would immediately have to stop eating - typical towny, I suppose.

Money_maker

Fire_Fox wrote: »

That is a really nasty thing to say, Hethmar.

Very nasty agreed, but it cracked me up :rotfl: