“The problem is not the sheep. The problem is irresponsible shepherds.” Thus spake – on the radio this morning – a spokesman for the majestically-named Irresponsible Shepherding Task Force in the Forest of Dean. Apparently, that rustic paradise is riddled with irresponsible shepherds who, among sundry enormities, allow their sheep to bleat in the middle of the night.
Personally, I am not surprised to learn about outbreaks of nocturnal bleating. Sheep are highly neurasthenic creatures who spend their entire lives in a state of fretfulness and nervous tension, and as a result they rarely sleep. This is probably one reason why, as has been observed by several country persons, a sheep’s ambition in life is to die.
You obviously have yet to encounter the Rough Swaledale..!
A breed whose sole ambition is to rob unwary hikers of their packed lunches atop Ingleborough Hill..
OSM
Twenty-sixteen ennui writ large. I would recommend that the sheep in question, not to mention the shepherds, take a one-month sabbatical from online news and social media. It’s worked wonders for me, and I’m 1/32nd sheep.
Rough Swaledale? Positively brutal on occasion OSM
Presumably the Irresponsible Shepherding Task Force have employed someone to observe and report back instances of this kind of irresponsible behaviour – a sort of Shepherd Spy, if you will…