About Farm Animals
Farm animals have taught me how important it is to know the nature of the species in our care. Living closely with them has also prompted me to notice how we humans disparage animals, especially farm animals, in our language. Most of the animal references in our speech are negative, as in a bunch of sheep (mindless followers), stupid cow, stubborn as a mule, eats like a pig, dumb as an ox. This disparagement bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the denigrating terms applied to people of color and enemies in wartime. Humans disparage what they want to distance themselves from or what they don’t understand. Given the horrendous treatment of the majority of farmed animals in the United States due to factory farming and the fact that most Americans have never had close contact with farm animals, it is likely that both reasons underlie this disparagement.
We learned from the civil rights, gay rights, and women’s rights movements that language is important. Our language reflects our beliefs. If we are not speaking with respect of a certain group, we are not treating them with respect. Animals, especially farm animals, seem to be the last bastion of humans’ former pervasive unconsciousness regarding the “other.” While we have cleaned up our language toward various human groups, many people still use the animal denigrations. Although ridding our speech of racist, sexist, and species-centric comments does not mean these issues are no longer problems in our society, it is an essential start. Paying attention to the views we reflect in our language is a first step in examining our individual need for greater sensitivity to others.
In addition, we owe it to the animals in our care to learn who they really are and not label our challenges in dealing with them as their behavior problems. Any difficulties we are having with any of our animals—dogs, cats, and farm animals alike—are the result of their poor treatment by humans or our lack of understanding of the nature of their species.
It is our responsibility to fill in the gaps in our understanding. That means educating ourselves, finding out exactly what a particular species requires. For example, it goes against the nature of sheep and is thus traumatic for them to be kept in separate pens, isolated from their flock, just as it is against the nature of dogs, who are pack animals (the pack can consist of one dog and one human), to be left locked up alone in an apartment all day. Instead of requiring the animals in our lives to conform to our way for our convenience, we need to consider who they are, learn about them if we don’t know, and make adjustments in our care to accommodate their natures. (Of course, their individual temperaments are part of the equation too, because, though there are general traits characteristic of a species, each animal, like each human, is an individual.) We can find ways of living side by side that respect each species.THE WAY OF THE SHEEP
In nine years of learning the Way of the Sheep, I have discovered that the flock is a powerful social unit rather than a bunch of mindless followers. Many people regard the manner in which sheep run together like fish in a school when there is unexpected movement in the pasture as hysterical overreaction, but when you know that sheep have no defense against predators except escape and safety in numbers, their response makes sense. Humans don’t tend to appreciate a “flock mentality,” but the truth is that we would probably be doing better as a species if we were as connected to each other as sheep are.
Disparaging sheep behavior as mindless reflects human ambivalence about being part of a group, as well as not considering the nature of the species and the importance of the flock. I have seen many instances of the members of the flock watching out for each other and accommodating a member who is hurt or ill. Rather than denigrating the flock for moving as one, shouldn’t we be in awe of how attuned sheep are to each other to be able to do that? Certainly, we have a lot to learn from their communication and cooperation with each other. Let us honor the sheep and look to them to help us be better people.
© 2005, Stephanie Marohn, all rights reserved.
Website last updated, August 19, 2014