[Jacob-list] (no subject)

[Susan J Martin]

Regarding obnoxious rams -- we had a ram here at one time who wasn't
truly nasty and most of his aggression was related to food -- woe on me
if I went in with him with grain or hay -- he was fond of giving me the
old head down, challenging eye sort of look.   He was too big for me to
take down and hold to the ground (too bad you didn't capture that on
video, Mary!), so I bought a large,  high-powered, pump-up water pistol
like kids play with at K-Mart -- fluorescent green and yellow, no less -
filled it with water, pumped it up well and carried it with me whenever I
went in with this ram.  A squirt or two in his face and he was reduced to
a whimpering fool - in fact, he learned quickly and if he even saw me
with the water gun he made sure he was someplace else.....never had a
another problem.   Again, this ram did not display a truly aggressive
behavior that indicated he wanted to annihilate all humans -- but he was
fond of intimidating me especially if food was involved.   I did have one
incident with him where I made the mistake of entering his meadow with
some hay, and he proceeded to charge me from a short distance -- he was
too close, and I was too far from the gate to make a quick retreat, so I
quickly side stepped him and grabbed his upright horns and held his nose
up which disabled him pretty quickly.   However, I was reluctant to let
go of him as his eyes were telling quite clearly what he was thinking
about me -- and I knew that at my age and with my bum knee I wasn't going
to be able to vault over the fence!!!  I called our dog, gave her the
signal to bark -- she performed well and my husband (who was in the
house) was alerted and came to my rescue.   Another device that I ALWAYS
carry with me when I am working with the sheep is my Nextel -- if I am
ever disabled but still conscious I would be able to call for help.   I
know of a woman who has a spinner's flock and a very amiable ram. 
However, one day she knelt down to examine a ewe for a possible injury
and the ram interpreted her behavior as aggressive toward one of "his
girls" and he charged her -- just one charge, but she was knocked
unconscious - when she regained consciousness she crawled back to her
house, called help and at the hospital was diagnosed with a fairly
serious concussion - and was told that had the ram's hit been just a hair
different she would have had spinal cord damage with paralysis.  

Just as evidenced in the recent attack on Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas --
animals can be unpredictable and they may exhibit totally
uncharacteristic behavior for whatever reason.

Sue Martin
Stonecroft

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