Annoying things non-sheep owners say to you...

[Southdown]

I feel like venting about annoying things non-farming/non-sheep owning people say. Since lambing season is upon us, I keep getting asked just how many more sheep I intend to breed. As if people think I have too many or something. (Mind you, I have twelve sheep right now, hardly a large operation, no doubt.) If I want to have twelve sheep or a hundred sheep, that's my business. It's not like I have 50 cats in the house and I'm a hoarder. These are outdoor animals people!

 

[BrownSheep]

Or how people look at you like you must be incredibly negligent/abusive when you loose a lamb.
Or how you must be heartless to eat " those poor little babies".



12 is not a big herd. I have almost 40 ewes and I still think we're a tiny operation.

 

[CritterZone]

People ask me all the time how I can raise an animal and then eat it or sell it to someone else to eat. I just tell them "it's easy, because they taste so good".

 

[bcnewe2]

The worst for me was arguing with my son in law at a BBQ, in front of my whole family, at my own house, he told me a ewe was a male ox. I tried to smile and correct him politely, but he told me it was an answer in a new york times crossword puzzle. We don't even live in NY! I never convinced him, even looking it up on the internet, he said it was wikki and the are known for misinformation! Then later his mother told me that my dog was hurt.... I have lived with, trained and been obsessed with border collies forever. He was creeping while working sheep! I tried to explain, she told me she should know, she's a nurse!

OK... guess it shows how much I liked my daughters husband and mil. Divorced now!

I could go on....but I win....I have the sheep!

 

[bonbean01]

I had one woman say she hoped that my hair sheep were not for food but for their WOOL...ummm...explained to her they are HAIR sheep, aka meat sheep. She said she'd like a sweater from our sheep's fibre...I told her if she could knit a hair sweater, that would be fine...she could gather it off the fences where they rub their winter hair off in the spring and knit away

 

[Roving Jacobs]

Opposite of the hair sheep for wool, I've had kids in tears thinking I was going to have to kill my wool sheep to get the fleece off of them. Even adults have been confused! I wouldn't do shearing demos at events if it involved butchering a sheep then and there on the lawn in front of a crowd of kids.

 

[CritterZone]

I used to show dairy goats, market sheep and pigs when I was a kid. LA County fair always provided us with the best comments, just because so many of the attendees were from the city and had never seen farm animals. Of course, the comments about the smell (what smell?), and the kids AND adults laughing while they watched an animal pee or poo, were common. We were fitting our sheep for showmanship one evening, and a friend had a nice Suffolk ram on the fitting table. A couple of guys came up and were pointing at his scrotum. They conferred for a few minutes, then asked why were didn't have the tumor removed The comments while milking out the dairy goats were always interesting...

We have friends who are big cattle ranchers - they run 1200 cow/calf pairs on thousands of acres - and they just shake their heads and roll their eyes at our little sheep operation.
We also have lot of neighbors who are wheat farmers, and they just don't understand why we have horses.
No one likes they chickens, but they will gladly accept a gift of fresh eggs.
And of course, you never want to mention how much of (your own) money you spend on your animals, because people will always think you have lost your mind.

 

[thestewarts]

We're still new but a few friends asked "you can milk a sheep?" And I immediately think of Meet The Parents and Robert Deniro saying "I have nipples, could you milk me"

 

[TeamChaos]

I am not an old sheep hand by any means, but I have been surprised by how many of my vegan friends were horrified at a picture I posted of my daughter holding bags of wool... one of the comments on it was "hope you didn't waste the meat". Whhhaaaat? People tell me how stupid sheep are and I don't tell them any differently, I just shrug and say "I tend to be tolerant of stupid as long as it's good natured".

 

[bcnewe2]

When I hear the stupid sheep thing I remind the offender that we are God's sheep. usually shuts them up quickly!