CONCERNS FOR SHEEP
CLIMATE CHANGE
Shelter and Shelters
Appearances suggest that, in the main, sheep farmers have not - to date - much concerned themselves with providing dedicated protection or shelter from the weather to sheep when they are outdoors. Presumably this has come from a viewpoint of seeing sheep - as well being quite able to look after themselves in terms of weather protection - as being largely able to withstand weather elements, because of hardiness, and because their fleece gives them some protection against wet, cold, and heat.
ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION
How Seen?
During a season from late March to early October, The Sheep Show tours Great Britain. It is deemed by its provider to be ‘educational’ and ‘fun’. It appears that The Sheep Show is liked by people. How, through sight and interpretation, do we think the sheep participants are regarding being in the Show?
RIGHTS
Enough Clarity?
Animal Rights represents animals not being used by humans. By contrast, Animal Welfare is improvement of animals’ existence. Feeding a demand, from some in society, for rights for animals, is: our knowledge of animals’ (all vertebrates’ and some invertebrates’) sentience; a realisation that to improve animals’ existence, and within the traditional paradigm, does not go far enough towards giving animals a life of high quality and full length (and also with the possibility present that not all humans would provide the betterment); seeing that we should not regard animals as property; recognising that we should not see animals as for humans’ use.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Too Hot
There are certain circumstances to cause sheep to feel hot. Now, with weather being, for extensive periods, hotter, and alongside, rainfall being absent or little, a situation is being reached of those circumstances being more intense and of more danger to sheep. Without ways of amelioration being identified and acted upon by humans, sheep have potential to be dangerously hot, and victim also to other effects of higher-temperature weather.
ENTERTAINING
Sheep Fest, and More
On the weekend just passed (8th and 9th August) Adam Henson’s Cotswold Farm Park had a Sheep Fest. Adam is portrayed on the Park’s website as ‘perhaps the best-known farmer in the UK’. He appears regularly on the BBC Countryfile television programme. Continuing the initiative of his father, Adam is a conservationist and promoter of rare breed farm animals. These animals are the core of the Park and make it distinctive. The Park regards itself as a family attraction.
EDUCATION
Informative Event
Last week, on 28th July, the National Sheep Association (NSA) held its Sheep Event. The next day NSA said that the Event had been about ‘knowledge exchange, practical demonstrations and lively debate’. The organisations, firms and people showing at the Event - a biennial occasion - represented the wide spectrum of those involved in UK sheep farming and those associated with it. The main audience for the Event was, of course, sheep farmers. Also, and importantly, it offered a picture for the general public of the sheep farming industry and business.
SLAUGHTER
The Dimension of Religion
Being killed at a slaughterhouse, anywhere, will always be a dreadful experience for sheep. The activity of a slaughterhouse will not be seen by the general public. It will only be observed by the slaughterhouse’s operatives, and, when regulations require it, by inspectors, and on CCTV. Those undercover investigations that take place often reveal bad treatment of sheep. A distinct category within overall sheep slaughter is religious slaughter.
TRANSPORTATION AND JOURNEY
Live Exports
No way of being transported, taken on a journey, is likely to be pleasant for sheep. Live exports is the transportation of livestock across national borders. Live exports of sheep, when it consists of sheep being carried on a ship on sea, for a long time, is likely to be type of travel that is most unpleasant for sheep. The reasons for live exports of sheep are most usually: that a religion requires that those of the religion see that sheep are slaughtered to a particular rite; that sheep are needed to be exported for breeding purposes. Some countries have banned live exports. Australia is to ban live exports of sheep by sea on 1st May 2028. Ban Live Exports International Awareness Day is on 14th June, so this year it was last Sunday.
EDUCATION
Meeting Requirements
Having the requirements of their clients/customers who put much importance upon sheep welfare must be helpful to sheep farmers in their wanting to do and maintain business with those people, and with others. And the input can assist towards removing any tendency in sheep farmers to get ‘set in their ways’.
ENTERTAINING
Sheep Movie
A recently-released movie is The Sheep Detectives. The film is for family viewing; it is a mystery comedy film. Its story is of a shepherd being found dead and the search to find the murderer. A distinctive element to the movie is that the shepherd’s flock helps humans to solve the mystery. Likely expectation in the context would be that portrayal of the sheep would be in form of cartoon. The unexpected feature to the film is that in it are real sheep, along with sheep looking as though they are real.
TRANSPORTATION AND JOURNEY
Journeys of Awfulness
It is probable that sheep never enjoy being transported in a vehicle. The inside of a vehicle is not their natural habitat. And often they are crammed together. It will not be nice to have a lengthy journey. Journeys that are of very long duration, and that are, moreover, by ship and on sea, have potential - and likelihood - to be journeys of particular awfulness for sheep. Among risks for sheep of such journeys are overcrowding, temperature extremes, not enough food or water, stress, fear, injury, death.
CLIMATE CHANGE
To Think About Weather
Weather that is not what would normally be expected, for the time of year, in type, and in intensity, is being experienced in many parts of the globe. Climate change is happening.
Prior to climate change’s arrival, sheep farmers and shepherds over the world have known well in what particular kind of environment they were raising sheep. Essentially present was habitual circumstance. How weather would be during the sheep farming year could be envisaged, so what was to happen, and when, could be decided reasonably confidently. And because largely what was done was what had been always done, the plan of action and provision could comprise ‘the usual’.
WELFARE
Some Progress
On this launch day for the Concerns for Sheep website, looking at recent activity in relation to the welfare of sheep, what can be seen that is helpful and encouraging?
On 22nd December 2025 the Animal Welfare Strategy for England was announced, with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) stating, ‘Our aspiration is to move towards a model where as many farmed animals as possible experience a good life and not just a life worth living.’ (DEFRA Policy Paper ‘Animal Welfare Strategy for England’, 22 December 2022). The subject areas that the Strategy addresses of particular relevance for sheep are: climate change; transportation.