[Jacob-list] sensibility

[Betty Berlenbach]

Tara, go right on handling your rams if you want to but please be very, very careful...Handled rams are the ones who aren't afraid or respectful of you, and all of a sudden, out of a clear blue sky, for no apparent reason, one day, one of them could come from behind and break your back...not because he doesn't "love" you, but precisely because he does, and since you have become close, he has decided you need to belong to his harem and need some discipline and some knowing of boundaries.  SHEEP have different ideas of boundaries and appropriate behaviour for females than most humans.  They also have different ideas of how to react to males whom they see as a threat, even human males....and they have a lot of testosterone which seems to shoot into them sporadically and at specific times, but also at non-specific times.  Taming your rams may make them friendly most of the time, but it also allows for a much greater probability that if you come across one of those tame rams on a testosterone=y day, you could be crippled for life.  Sheep are meant to be friendly to sheep, and relate to sheep.  Trying to make them puppy dogs is just not heatlhy for you or for them.  It's like keeping a cat declawed and indoors...sweet kittie, but what kind of life is that for a hunter?  Sheep need to be allowed to be sheep.  

That's just MY two cents.   I wouldn't even bother, because, like you, I believe there are a wide range of choices of how to treat animals, but I am very concerned that you or your spouse or one of your children could end up dead because you are expecting your sheep to act like something other than sheep.  You don't scold a bird for catching a mouse or a bird: they are programmed to do so, as border collies are programmed to herd.  If a ram attacks a human, it is because it sees that human as a threat or as a potential mate who needs training up.  Please don't expect your sheep to act like a human. They can be very affectionate, thank God, but they also can be very sheep=y.  They didn't name Dodge Ram CHarger trucks that because they were cute!  

And, people who don't handle their sheep are definitely NOT abusing them.  Some people believe very strongly that handling their domestic animals is NOT good policy, not good for them, not good for the animals.  Judge not, lest ye be judged!
 Betty, in Vermont,who now has a blog, thanks to help from Walter and Linda.  See Betty's blog at http://sheepwoman.wordpress.com.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20090914/65c63bc8/attachment-0001.html>