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Ways that sheep can die
Getting stuck on their backs and dying of suffocation Attacked by flies Eaten by maggots Being attacked by dogs or any other living creature Being frightened into a heart attack by imagining the dog is going to attack, even though it is not Drowning (Are we surprised sheep cannot swim?) Suffocating in snow (surprisingly common) Hoof infections that poison the blood Almost exploding with grass because they have eaten too much and are unable to pass wind If they get too hot If they get too cold
That's from Marti Leimbach and I wonder how many sheep die of old age. With that, it is time to leave Santiago and return home.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on August 24, 2008 at 04:57 PM in Science | Permalink
Comments
"That's from Marti Leimbach ..."
To be fair, Marti Leimbach's comments actually had punctuation and formating.
Posted by: SheetWise at Aug 24, 2008 5:44:32 PM
I always thought it was funny how dumb sheep are, and yet they are the metaphor the Bible uses for Christians. God certainly has a sense of humor.
To be fair cows and horses have to be weaned onto spring grass to prevent bloating and possible death.
Posted by: nelsonal at Aug 24, 2008 7:11:55 PM
nelsonal -- The point of referring to believers as sheep and to Jesus as the Good Shepherd is exactly that: The sheep are simple-minded and totally dependent on the Shepherd for everything. If that confuses you, or if you think it's funny, or that you're too smart to fall for it, consider this:
"At that time Jesus exclaimed:
'I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.'"
~~~Matthew 11:25
Actually, I appreciate your reminding me of this. Personally, I have no problem in recognizing my dependence.
Posted by: Bill at Aug 24, 2008 7:52:10 PM
In the same post, Marti also said:
"It is an interesting fact that sheep farmers spend their days trying to keep sheep from dying only to eventually kill them anyway"
I wonder how else she expected animal husbandry to work?
Did she think the farmer says, "well these ani-mules are gonna die sooner or later so it might as well be sooner?"
holy crap.
Posted by: angus at Aug 24, 2008 8:14:21 PM
Eaten by maggots? I thought the whole point of maggot therapy was that the little critters will not eat living flesh. A sheep being eaten by maggots will probably be looking for some delicious brains to graze on rather than grass.
Posted by: at Aug 24, 2008 9:00:40 PM
The maggot-eaten bit I think comes from the fact that sheep dont wipe their butts. The phenomenon is called "flystrike" and I guess that maggots will eat anything if they are hungry enough. Possibly there are gastronomic differences in varying species maggots?
Posted by: DPirate at Aug 24, 2008 10:04:42 PM
What about goats?
Would they be more hardy? I daresay a goat curry can stand up to a mutton curry any day.
Posted by: grover at Aug 24, 2008 10:25:20 PM
It's true that sheep farmers spend pretty much all there time preventing sheep from dying. However, we
used to have 170 million of them in very harsh conditions in Australia. Apparently keeping them dry helps
a lot, and we have a whole lot of dry in Australia. Of course too much dry and the sheep have nothing to
eat. With the effects of drought and climate change we're down to about 90 million sheep now, but we have
more cows. Unfortunately the digestive processes of our sheep and cows contributes more to global warming
in the short term than all the transportation and electricity generation in Australia.
Here's a PDF on our four stomached friends' methane production if anyone's interested:
http://www.control.com.au/bi2007/2810Brook.pdf
Posted by: Ronald Brak at Aug 25, 2008 12:56:00 AM
And on the note of sheep looking for delicious brains. . . B-movie fans will enjoy Black Sheep, a 2007 horror movie about weresheep. They bite humans who then turn into unspeakable giant mansheep things.
Posted by: Swimmy at Aug 25, 2008 2:51:06 AM
Where's Granny Aching when you need her?
Posted by: Mike Huben at Aug 25, 2008 6:57:43 AM
The funny part isn't that we're dependant, that's true. The funny part is, I don't think most Christians quite realize to what they are being compared (being that we're pretty far removed from the farm these days). It's not something I've heard sermons on as much as when I was a child. I'd guess there's a substanital minority of folks whose concept of sheep is from a hallmark card/precious moments figurine. To them sheep are cuddly cute critters.
I still think God gets a pretty good laugh occasionally when He sees all the silly things we get proud of doing.
Posted by: nelsonal at Aug 25, 2008 9:01:42 AM
Don't forget Scrapie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapie
More hideous ways they die.
Posted by: outback at Aug 25, 2008 10:08:16 AM
Nelsonal, you may appreciate this poem by Stephen Crane (d. 1899):
Two or three angels
Came near to the earth.
They saw a fat church.
Little black streams of people
Came and went in continually.
And the angels were puzzled
To know why the people went thus,
And why they stayed so long within.
(from The Black Riders)
Posted by: Erik Knechtel at Aug 25, 2008 12:10:31 PM
And in NZ: Kea attacks causing death by infection or accident (though this would come under attacks by dogs/any other animal).
Posted by: christine at Aug 25, 2008 12:30:16 PM
Given the extent of that list, I'd say every age is old age for a sheep.
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