Posted on 09/14/2009 12:14:20 PM PDT by ShadowAce
LONDON (Reuters) - A group of schoolchildren who reared a lamb from birth and named it Marcus has overridden objections by parents and rights activists and voted to send the animal to slaughter.
Marcus the six-month-old lamb has now been culled, the head teacher of the primary school in Kent confirmed on Monday, after the school's council -- a 14-member group of children aged 6 to 11 -- voted 13-1 to have him killed.
The decision has provoked fury among animal-loving celebrities, animal and human rights campaigners and the parents of some of the children, and led to threats against Lydd primary school and its teachers, according to a member of staff.
Around 250 children at the school take part in a program designed to teach them about rearing and breeding animals.
The educational farm was started this year, with Marcus being hand-fed by the children. The children also look after ducks, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs.
The intention had been to buy pigs with the money raised from slaughtering Marcus, but those plans have been put on hold following the furor created by the lamb's culling. The school said the program may now have to be stopped.
"It's all up in the air," said a member of staff. "There's been so much pressure on us as a result of all this."
Despite that, the school said there had been overwhelming support among the children, the staff and most of the parents to have Marcus -- a castrated male who could not have been used for breeding -- sent to the slaughterhouse.
But opponents branded it heartless and cruel, with animal rights campaigners asking why Marcus could not have been used to teach the children about wool, and human rights campaigners worried about the emotional impact of Marcus's death on...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I’m no animal rights activists, but I refuse to eat lamb.
Usefullness to the Great Utopian Society is the excuse for abortion as "sacrament".
Seems the children learned LOTS about raising and breeding animals, including the VERY salient fact that MEAT comes from animals.
“the Tiger” by William Blake.
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
We sang that song in my senior high choir. Haunting.
well I'm a vegetarian who makes an occasional exception for lamb so we cancel out. I LOVE Indian food!
Mary had a little lamb,
she loved the rascal dearly.
Especially when simmered slow
with garlic wine and barley.
Shame when the kids have more sense than the parents.
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was black as soot
And every where that Mary went
His sooty foot he put
I hope it was a democratic process and the lamb got a vote, too!
Sounds like they should have called it an "educational zoo".
THEY KILLED KENNY!
Now the murdering little beasty-brats have killed Marcus.
THEY KILLED MARCUS!
Oh, my God! They killed Marcus...AND CREMATED HIM!
I'll draw on my professional experience for this one.
Mary had a little lamb
She doesn’t anymore
For what was once pure H2O
Is now H2SO4
Urban people do this throughout the Middle East.
Kind of wonder how many of the kids on that council are Moslems. I thinking here it must be about 13 of them!
Now, now, that’s a perfect waste of young dog. I don’t go along with the Korean custom of tenderizing them by putting them in a sack and beating them half to death, but otherwise dogs are just another kind of livestock.
The young ones are eaten because they aren't gamey.
If we didn't eat them then we'd get no meat at all from sheep and goats.
Now cows, they get eaten old, young, in between ~ beef can be tenderized in a variety of ways, and it's usually never gamey.
maexile
Mary had a little lamb
Her father shot it dead
And now it goes to school each day
Between two chunks of bread
graybeard58
Mary had a little lamb
It’s fleece was white as snow
But when she slit his little throat
My, how the blood did flow.
Ooo, can anyone play?
Mary had a little lamb
It’s fleece so white and fluffy
All it took was bad mint sauce
And her face, it was so puffy
ping
Mary had a little lamb
the PETA bunch did cheer
till they saw her in the next day’s paper
served up with garnish and beer.
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