BETRAYAL OF A FRIEND Relevant paperwork was filled out and we
moved the two lambs to our very humble six- acre smallholding on Mull. That night Juliet, who seems to have the ability to make animals thrive, began the bottle feeding. The boys sat with her amid the straw bales to see how it was done. Luke, who has a tender ambition to become a vet, volunteered to be chief nurse. The next morning we found one lamb dead,
which was duly buried with full honours. The other still stood, and over the weeks and months he grew bigger and stronger. The boys named him Archie and soon he
was released into the field where he grew into a sturdy and boisterous beast. The children would call for him and he would come galloping across to them.
A strong personality Archie loved butting games, which he played with Skipper, our Jack Russell. Sometimes there were a few other sheep in the field, but they would ignore him or even treat him aggressively. Whenever humans appeared the other sheep would retreat to a safe distance while Archie would amble over for a head scratch. ‘There’s nothing wrong with these humans,’ he seemed to say. ‘Look, they’re friends.’ But the sheep continued to shun him whenever he tried to join their flock. Inevitably, we reached a point where a
decision had to be made. Either we could allow Archie to live on, mainly alone in the field, or we accepted that we had given him a good life and that he was a meat animal who should be dealt with accordingly. We also began to realise that it was not a
very happy life for him alone in the field pining for human company. Although well fed and healthy, Archie was neither farm animal nor pet. He wanted to live in the house with us like the dog, and spent his time baa-ing plaintively from behind the fence. In the morning when we came out he would
leap up, having clearly been counting the moments till we appeared. We had allowed him to think he was one of us, and it was a different kind of cruelty. We decided that we couldn’t keep Archie as a
pet forever, and neither could he have a proper farm life. There was no choice but for him to live out his original destiny. The one thing we could do, however, was give him a quick end, and I decided I would shoot him myself rather than put him through the stress of the slaughterhouse. On the allotted morning I woke up with a
sinking feeling. Over the years I’ve killed many animals for eating, but this felt very different. By befriending this lamb we had learned what
most people choose to ignore. This ‘dumb sheep’ was actually full of humour, intelligence and affection. He had a charming sheepish personality, which was different and distinct from the dog, cats and pony, but just as strong. He used to spend all his time trying to get to
Juliet, whom he regarded as his mother, and one day she was on the phone in our home office when a huge baa directly behind her made her shriek. Turning, she saw the fully grown Archie, who had escaped from his field, come up to the house and let himself in the front door. She took the decision to kill him particularly hard, and refused to have anything to do with it. With a heavy heart, I made up a bucket of
Archie’s favourite food and shot him while he was eating it. He never knew any stress or fear and wouldn’t have felt a thing, but I still felt awful. Later, I took his carcass to hang at a friend’s
cold store and a week later butchered and packed him. We gave most of the meat away, as Juliet and the boys refused to eat it, but the family and friends who benefited reported that he was delicious. Eventually, when the memory had faded, we
cooked one of the few packages that remained in the freezer. But as soon as the boys realised it was Archie, we began reminiscing about him. ‘I feel like a cannibal,’ Juliet declared, and our appetites quickly disappeared. I have hunted, trapped and fished just about
every kind of animal for the pot, but this was completely different. This was betrayal. Those other animals were clear about their position; they were wild and free and doing what came naturally – trying to escape being caught – whereas this animal had crossed the line of trust and never suspected we might do him harm. Yet he wasn’t happy in his limbo state, somewhere between friend and food.
The justification for hunting It had seemed a simple thing to do, to raise an animal for meat, and tied in with all our principles about keeping animals healthy and happy, knowing their history before they reach their end. But we had not planned on discovering that there is more than a mutton joint to a sheep – there’s a personality in there too.
We will raise lambs again, we will give them
good and happy lives, but we will never cross that line again where we become their friends. If ever there was a justification for hunted meat and game, this is it. Hunting is straightforward; there’s no emotional complexity. The animal knows that you mean to kill it, and sometimes it gets away. The thought never crossed Archie’s woolly mind.
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 87
‘We had allowed him to think he was one of us and it was a different kind of cruelty’
Opposite: Juliet’s care soon had the lamb thriving. Above: Children can easily become attached to animals that they have helped to raise.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224