A popular farming and livestock program at a primary school in Kent may be shutdown after the student council voted to ignore objections from parents and animal activists and have a six-month-old lamb named Marcus slaughtered for cash. The 14-member council composed of 6 to 11 year old children voted to turn Marcus into chops and to use the money to buy pigs for the program at Lydd primary school.
The children reared Marcus from birth and then shocked parents by announcing their decision to cull Marcus. He is a castrated lamb, so he cannot be used to expand the herd. The children also manage ducks, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs. The children were managing their stock and making the type of decision that farms (as opposed to zoos) make on the use of such animals.
Animal activists are insisting that Marcus should be used to teach kids about wool production and are now calling for an end of the program entirely.
The school has defended the children and noted that farms cull animals and that the children are making the type of decisions that are inherent in such an operation.
A good point, but they may want to consider what some English schoolboys did to a Piggy:
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Mike A.
In all fairness to the protectionist parents, you don’t HAVE to kill an animal before you eat it. It just makes the job much more difficult and usually a little dangerous.
My name is Alex and I am from New Zealand. I love the UK in spite of its terrible animal welfare laws which last year alone allowed 3.5 million cats, dogs and monkeys to suffer in cruel experiments at the hands of cold hearted lab researchers.
I know it’s money that buys off the politicians each year allowing these monsters to do what they do ( even in the face of new research that proves these animals think, feel and suffer as we do ) but this group of kids voting to kill their former pet friend saddened me more.
Desensitising the Young is exactly what this is geared to do but it will have wide ranging effects even affecting the depth of their future relationships because what they really put to death was the only emotion that really made them human, Empathy. On that note I wrote an email note earlier adding it to my signing of the petition to fire the person who had through questions ( and they must have had questions put to them in order to arrive at a conclusion ) led a group of kids to a so called logical pragmatic decision which would affect the life of a lamb who had played and trusted every one of these kids( see my email below ).
As an important footnote to this whole sad affair I wanted to add this thought. There is one sure way of knowing whether it was right or wrong for this group of kids to vote on whether Marcus should live or die. Would you have had them watch him be killed? I hear the answer from here yet the voted to put a living being to death not having ( I think ) any real concept of what that meant. Only seeing the killing would they have truly realised the fate they had consigned Marcus to. Were adults to have voted on such things they would have had a pretty good idea of what awaited Marcus. After all I’m sure he wasn’t euthenised as he could not then have been eaten.
But children?? I believe if these kids had seen Marcus put to death after months of kindness toward him they would have cried and retracted their vote. But it would of course be all too late. Sadly, in a few years time they will come to know what they did. And it will go two ways. Either they will have learned to devalue the life of another being regardless of the fact that for a short time they may have cared for that life and his wellbeing, or they will feel regret.
In NZ we have been debating the clear correlation between cruelty to animals and later in life offending toward other humans. Notably the lack of empathy exhibited towards the pain of their victims ( real science maintains empathy is proof of evolutionary development ). The ability to feel anothers pain. If a man or woman can put themselves in the shoes of a being that is suffering and imagine the pain and fear they are feeling it would affect the way they treated that being ( which tells you all you need to know about researchers that can pour draino down a dogs throat to test a new chemical )!! That said I finish by saying a sad bad mistake was made at this school. I pray we can learn from it. Yours in life. Alex!! ( see below for my earlier email ).
Dear Sir I live in New Zealand and love the UK but understand it has many challenges. One of the keys to a brighter future I believe is the gift of empathy. Higher on the evolutionary scale than intellect or I.Q. it is the one thing that can see past a cost-benefit analysis and look at how we’re treating each other and the vulnerable around us. Killing Marcus was a desensitising act that sets a child up to ignore the pain of another creature. Here in New Zealand and in many parts of the world acts of cruelty by children to animals have led to violence against people later and this correlation is fact not fiction or specul;ation. These kids are more likely to hut the dog or cat as a result of this without considering the pain that is being felt. These kids are too young to have been given such a choice and consensus must have been led by the teachers involved to line up with economics rather than any other outcome. The impact of this is far reaching. I do not wish to attack the farming sector but this lamb should have been the exception just like many lambs kept as pets by farmers and their children. You do not teach kids to befriend and care for something and then teach them that that lamb is expendable. It’s quite simply horrific. Close the program and sack all ibnvolved. Yours Alexander
Buddha:
L Ron was, in my mind, a genius. He was able to persuade people that we are the left over souls from some civilization light years from our planet. That people even believed him is a testament to his salesmanship.
Now it could be that the souls he was selling were utterly feeble minded and in need of some or for that matter any direction.
I have seen first hand the impact his religious philosophy has had on someone I know, it was not good and I consider Scientology a monstrous evil.