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Animals

What about sheep?

Recently YouTube recommended a video of a sheep doing tricks. It was most impressive. It was also something I had never thought about. How intelligent is a sheep? In this video, the sheep was taught to do all kinds of tricks for a tasty treat. It became apparent that the sheep liked the trainer and kept looking up at him – and then it was to the point where he pointed and the sheep just did…what the trainer seemed to ask.. from jumping in a box to jumping over obstacles and walking through a tunnel. That got me thinking. We use sheep for all kinds of things. Wool and tasty lamb dishes. Consider… 1) from a study done by a veterinary group in 2001 – By presenting sheep with images of 25 pairs of sheep faces and teaching them to associate one of each pair with a food reward, they trained them to recognize individual faces. Then, by measuring activity in regions of the sheep’s brain associated with visual recognition, they found that sheep can remember up to 50 sheep faces, even in profile for up to two years! Some of us humans would have a problem with that. 2) A Welsh farmer stated: “When you think that when sheep wander off sometimes they go back to where they came from – the flock they came from, ” he said. 3) As prey animals, they have a highly developed flocking instinct and prefer to move in groups rather than as individuals. That certainly seems intelligent 4) Hungry sheep on the Yorkshire Moors (Great Britain) taught themselves to roll 8 feet (3 meters) across hoof-proof metal cattle grids to raid villagers’ valley gardens. 5) Researchers say, “Sheep form individual friendships with one another, which may last for a few weeks. They may think about a face even when it’s not there.” The researchers also found female sheep had a definite opinion about what made a ram’s face attractive 6) Using a maze, researchers have concluded that sheep have excellent spatial memory and can learn and improve their performance. And they can retain this information for six weeks. 7) New research is suggesting that sick sheep could be smart enough to cure themselves. Australian researchers believe that sick sheep may seek out plants that make them feel better. There has been previous evidence to suggest that animals can detect what nutrients they are deficient in and can develop knowledge about which foods are beneficial or toxic. The point is [...]

By |2024-02-27T11:19:05+00:00June 27th, 2009|Animals, Sheep, Wool|0 Comments
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More about Goats and Sheep

Goats and Sheep is one of the smallest domesticated ruminants that have served the mankind former and longer than the cattle and sheep county fair. It is controlled for the production of milk, meat, wool and may other products, particularly in arid, semitropical or mountainous countries. In temperate zones, goats are kept frequently rather as additional animals by petite holders, while commercially cows or buffaloes are especially kept for milk, cheese and other meat products, and sheep for wool and meat production. More About Goats and Sheep Goats are fun to have as pets Nonetheless, there are more than 465 million goats worldwide currently producing more than Goats and Sheep 4.6 million tons of milk and 1.3 million tons of meat as well mohair, cashmere, leather and also dung; and more people drink milk and milk products from goats all-inclusive than from any other animal. Goats could love on bushes, trees, desert scrub and other aromatic herbs when sheep and cattle would starve to death. Goat herders frequently have deserted a balanced numerical stability among goat numbers and sparse vegetation. Over-grazing has smashed many tree and the woodland areas that were blamed then on goats other than man, and this has caused extensive ecological and political worries, erosion, desertification and as well ban on freely grazing goats in some of the world famous areas. Swiss Goats and Sheep breeds are the world's selected for milk production. Indian and Nubian resulting goat breeds are dual-purpose meat and for milk producers. Spanish and South African goats are top recognized for meat producing ability. The Turkish Angora, Asian Cashmere and the Russian Don goats are reserved for mohair and cashmere wool production. In addition, there are Pygmy goats from Western Africa of growing interest as laboratory and pet animals. Goat milk casein and goat milk fat are more simply digested than from any cow milk. Goat milk is appreciated for the elderly, ill, babies, children with cow milk allergies, patients with ulcers, and as well favored for raising waifs and strays foals or puppies. Fat globules in goat milk are slighter than in cow milk and stay dispersed longer Goats and Sheep. Breeds of goats differ from as little as 20 lb grown-up female body weight and 18 inches female shrivels for dwarf goats for purpose of meat production up to 250 lb and 43 inches shrivels height for Indian Jamnapari, Swiss Saanen, Alpine and Anglo Nubian for purpose of milk production. Some Jamnapari males might be [...]

By |2024-03-27T15:16:38+00:00May 10th, 2007|Goats, Sheep|0 Comments
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A Time for the Animals

Time For The Animals Even as a cloud of savagery, evidenced by the misfortunes of war, hangs over our world, humanity has lately begun to demonstrate an astonishing degreee of civility in at least one very important respect, that being the manner in which we treat our animals - specifically, the animals we raise for food. In just the last few months, unprecedented strides have been taken in this country to improve the welfare of pigs, cattle, chickens, and ducks who've been forced for many years to endure miserable and agonizing lives Time For The Animals. Granted, the bulk of these efforts still lies ahead of us, but first steps have, unequivocally, been taken - steps which only a short time ago wouldn't have been thought to be so quickly achieved. A Time for the Animals I guess it all began in August of last year when the foie gras ban was enacted in Chicago Time For The Animals. Who'd have thought, huh? While California's 2004 ban on production wouldn't actually go into effect until 2012, the Chicago law was designed to take effect almost immediately. Of course, it was ballyhooed, scoffed at, derided. Even the city's mayor called it the "silliest" law the city council had ever passed, but detractors notwithstanding, the statute was on the books. And in March of this year, we were shown that even a silly law could be enforced when the first citation was handed down, a guilty plea entered, and the fine paid. Like I said, who'd have thought? Then came Arizona's Proposition 204, designed to do away with caged imprisonment of pigs and veal calves and approved overwhelmingly by the state's voters. Though Florida had passed a similar law in 2002, it was the Arizona bill which grabbed our nation's attention, prompting forecasts of even more initiatives forthcoming in a number of other states - possibly as soon as 2008 Time For The Animals. The biggest and most recent gains, however, have come from the corporate community. Following in the footsteps of grocery retailers like Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's, as well as Internet icons AOL and Google, ice cream manufacturer Ben and Jerry's announced in September of 2006 its intention to adopt a cage free policy for its entire product line. Then, in January of 2007, Burgerville, with a chain of popular restaurants in the Northwest, also officially turned its back on battery cage eggs. In late January, Smithfield, the nation's largest producer of pork, began [...]

By |2024-03-27T15:30:51+00:00May 10th, 2007|Animals|0 Comments
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