Sheep can be seen in many parts of the UK. Wales even has more sheep than humans! It is easy to assume that these sheep have happy lives, living freely in fields. However, sheep are killed for mutton (meat from adults) and lamb (meat from baby lambs). They are also severely injured often when they are sheared for their wool.

Mary had a little lamb…

People often call others a ‘lamb’ if they are cute, sweet or innocent. However, there is nothing cute, sweet or innocent about what actually happens to the lambs that end up on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus.

Many lambs die as babies – approximately one-in-five of them will not survive, often due to disease.

Soon after birth, lambs will have their tails cut off and males are castrated. They are taken from their mothers at just a few weeks of age; at this point, they are still young, but old enough to have put on weight and have lots of ‘meat’ on their bones.

They are then slaughtered because somebody, somewhere, wanted to eat the baby lamb.

You can only protect these babies by going vegan!

What about wool?

Sheep are shorn as quickly as possible in order to maximise the amount of wool the farmers can sell. This frequently leads to cutting and injuring sheep, who have no protection under the law.

When the sheep stops producing as much wool as it had previously, they are killed. This typically happens at just a few years of age – less than half of their natural lifespan of 12 or more years.