The Sheep Couldn't Tell the Human
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FROM Sandra Isobel Kyle, EndAnimalSlaughter.org
October 2021

Did the farmer come and take your baby, and just left you there to die? The sheep, although she knew what happened, couldn’t tell the human, so she just lay still.

sheep in field

The human looked out from her car window onto the beautiful green fields of the Rangitikei, where pretty lilac flowers grow in abundance at this time of the year. In the distance she could see a paddock, empty except for a single sheep, who was lying very still.

As she passed by the human turned to look at the sheep, and she could see that there was nothing she could do to help. as the sheep was already dead. But there was something about the sight of the sheep lying alone that touched the human's heart, and so instead of continuing, she pulled her car over to the side of the road and stopped the engine. In her bag were some synthetic red roses she was carrying as a small gift for her friends in the nearby city, and she chose one of them, and started to walk back to where the sheep lay.

Separating the human and the sheep was a fence, with a steep bank in front of it. The human hesitated. She didn’t want to have an accident, to fall and twist her ankle for example. She looked around. There were no houses she could see, no other way of access into the field. Maybe she shouldn't go.

Lying still, the sheep seemed to call to her ‘Come, Human, come to see me!’ so the human began to carefully lower herself down the bank just far enough that she could jump to the other side, and pull herself up onto the long grass that grew in front of the fence. She climbed over, and went to the sheep’s side.

“What happened to you Mamma?” said the human to the sheep, who didn’t answer. The human knew she was a mamma, because the teets on her udder were large and swollen. The human bent down and stroked the sheep, who still seemed quite warm. Her tummy was big, and the human felt worried. “What if there’s a baby inside, that could be saved?” she said to herself, wondering what to do.

As she slowly and respectfully walked around the sheep the human noticed that her eye had been partially plucked out, and its inside bits were lying across her face. When she looked at the back of the sheep she could understand that she had already given birth, because a long umbilical cord and placenta were lying near her anus.

sheep placenta

“I’m sorry, Mamma” said the human, feeling very sad in her heart. “But where is your baby? Was the little one so small that a hawk could pick them up in their talons and spirit them away? Was it the hawk who won Nature’s cruel lottery on this occasion? Or did the farmer come and take your baby, and just left you there to die?”

The sheep, although she knew what happened, couldn’t tell the human, so she just lay still.
The human put the rose next to the mumma sheep, said goodbye, and continued on her journey with a heavy heart.

dead Sheep


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