There is a terrible tragedy going on in Scotland right now, and as most of us fibre folks enjoy wool, cashmere and Fair Isle knitting, Scotland is a nation that often crosses our minds.
The foot-and-mouth crisis of this past summer has left Scotland’s sheep farmers in an awful position - as their lambs were banned from export, they’ve had to stay put in Scotland, and now time and food are running out. Winter is settling into the northern climes, and drastic action will need to be taken soon, lest the hundreds of thousands of lambs living in Scotland right now collectively face starvation and long, painful deaths.
The lambs in question, called ‘light lambs’, are not destined for the UK market or table; there is little call for lamb in Britain anymore and these lambs are slaughtered and then exported to the Continent for eating. The new outbreak of foot-and-mouth took away the crucial continental market, and the lambs have stayed put. But now that they’re weaned and growing, they’re eating the somewhat sparse food usually reserved for their mothers, who must survive the Scottish winter to breed next year.
From the BBC: “Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said he had already received isolated reports of lambs dying and called on Westminster to cover the cost of the scheme. ‘The foot-and-mouth crisis has left hundreds of thousands of sheep stranded on our hills facing starvation,’ he said. ‘We cannot countenance the prospect of this continuing given the impact not only on the welfare of the animals but also on those farmers who would otherwise face watching their flocks starve to death.’”
Farmers have called on the government to help them prevent what will, without government assistance, be a massive animal suffering epidemic. After a delay (more on that later), a Scottish government scheme was announced which will allow sheep farmers to take their lambs to abattoir and be paid for it, £15 (USD 31) per lamb. Some of the carcasses will be used for biofuels, most will be incinerated. It isn’t the ideal solution, but well done to the Scots for not leaving their farming men and women completely in the lurch. Of course, £15 is not enough for a lamb - not enough to even be compensation for a lamb - but it is, sadly, better than nothing. The alternative, leaving the lambs to starve on the hills, isn’t much of an alterative at all.
As with everything, politics has become an issue. The Scottish government has moved in to handle the lamb crisis, with the implication that the final bill will rest on the UK government, who has dallied on implementing their own scheme. Brown’s government’s inability to react quickly has caused damage that will long outlast the lambs and will likely colour the Scottish sheep market - not to mention further wear away at the already stormy relations between Scotland and England - for years to come. The Stackyard reports that National Farmers Union Scotland (NFU Scotland) president Jim McLaren said, “The fact that the UK Government has still refused to pick up the cost of this scheme is nothing short of a disgrace. The Scottish Government has stepped in and that is absolutely critical, but the negligence and inaction in London will not be forgotten by Scottish farmers.”
Along with the farmers, I have to think that despite the terror of being transported to a slaughterhouse and sensing what awaits you, it must outweigh the gnawing pain of starvation and eventual death. At least the slaughterhouse will be relatively quick. As it stands right now, thousands of lambs are being lined up for the cull - 12,000 in Shetland alone, according to the Shetland News. Shetland’s local NFU Scotland president John Abernathy hopes that if they don’t meet the maximum number of lambs the scheme allows - 250,000 - then ewes who are also in danger of starvation will be brought in as well.
As I write this, there is breaking news that the EU has relaxed its ban on British meat exports and that disease restrictions for foot-and-mouth and bluetongue will be eased off next week. The sheep markets in Scotland have also opened today - for the first time in nearly two months and mostly to collect the lambs going for slaughter. The EU’s decision comes too late for the lambs, who are down to skin and bones and couldn’t get any sort of price for their meat at market, but perhaps other animals can be prevented from similar suffering.
Despite books including Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, despite the growing popularity of the Slow Food movement, and despite our innate knowledge that factory farming is the method by which most meat-eaters are able to buy their Sunday roast in the shops, many folks continue to have a romantic notion of farming - a flock of milk-white sheep on a lush, grassy hill.
This notion can also extend to fibre arts. If you attend a wool or alpaca show or go to a farm offering fleece, you can often meet the kind soul who grew that fleece. You’ll probably also meet the farmer as well. But with most of our fibre, we don’t know the sheep, we don’t know the farmer, we don’t know anything. We just know that the yarn is pretty, it feels nice on the skin, and that we want to make something out of it as soon as possible. We don’t know about the lives involved. The Cascade 220 I bought for my Central Park Hoodie - I have no idea how many sheep contributed to it. I don’t know where those sheep live or what they eat or if they have a nice place to sleep at night. I hope they do. Given that there are relatively few alternative choices for us (for now) as fibre artists, I have to hope they do.
I also hope the sheep who grew my Cascade 220 don’t have to endure the sorts of conditions that the lambs in Scotland do right now, conditions exacerbated by political hangups and bickering over money and moral responsibility. It makes me very happy that the Scottish government has stepped in to prevent as much suffering as they can for both the lambs and the humans.
If you’d like more information about the current crisis or would like to look at the articles I referenced, please have a look at the following links:
Starving lambs to be slaughtered
Thousands lined up for lamb cull
Foot-and-mouth payouts for farmers dropped after U-turn on election
Row brewing over F&M aid money
Sheep Welfare Scheme an ‘Awful Necessity’, says NFUS
National Farmers Union Scotland
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