With lambing season upon us, it’s a good time to remind people that when referring to meat, the word lamb can be misleading as lambs sent to market aren’t babies and our lambs usually weight about one hundred and ten pounds when they go to the abattoir, which is virtually indistinguishable from a full grown sheep.
While some animals on the farm live longer lives, many of our lambs are sent to the abattoir around six to eight months old. Their lives are to be honored young or old, but it’s important to understand these animals are offered a beautiful life, even if it may seem short by our human standards.
Life for these animals is better than what most of nature has to offer young animals who live in a near constant state of fear, something that the animals on this farm do not have to endure. Our livestock are offered food, shelter, medical attention and a humane death whereas the young deer in British Columbia are offered none of these things and often slowly starve to death or die of injury, disease or predation.
While I still find it sad, I’ve come to peace with the decision to eat meat and have chosen to gratefully accept my rightful place in the food chain with the understanding that human existence is intrinsically linked to death for our own survival. Some will argue that our morality must compel us to not kill animals but I believe it is our morality that propels us to never let any creature suffer.
