http://www.killology.com/sheep_dog.htm (From the book, "On Combat", by Lt Col.Dave Grossman)
I work around a lot of different animals including sheepdogs and sheep. These animals don't always behave the way folks say.
I have been reading "In Praise of Wolves" by RD Lawrence. He says that wolves only kill to eat and that they have a method of interacting that enables them to survive. Looks to me like wolves don't always behave the way folks say.
In this analogy, animals are consumption actors. Herbivore “Citizen Ewe” is shepherded, sheared, shagged, slaughtered, and savored. Carnivorous “Deputy Dog” cooperates and collaborates, corralling the sheep. Carnivorous “Outlaw Wolf” competes, and consumes.
So, who owns sheep? Who directs dogs? Who defines wolves?
You own you. You are not chattel requiring protection. You are not a dog obligated to defend owner interests of chattel. You are not a wolf destroying chattel. You are a human who can learn to defend himself, who can join with other like-minded folks in mutual defense, who can control his impulses to consume more than he produces.
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by Lemuel Gulliver
ReplyDeleteJune 10, 2014 at 5:52 PM
comments at http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-former-hammers-lament-its-no-fun-to.html
"The will of men is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided. Men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence. It does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, until each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."
– Alexis de Tocqueville
Interesting, his characterization of Leviathan as "The Shepherd." This implies the subjects - all of us - are "The Sheep." Some of your readers may never have encountered a herd of sheep, but out there in Idaho, I'm sure you have. Their behavior is exactly that of the mass of the American public: timid, fearful, and complacent.
June 10, 2014 at 5:52 PM
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteJune 12, 2014 at 7:05 AM
comments ibid
"Interesting, his characterization of Leviathan as "The Shepherd." This implies the subjects - all of us - are "The Sheep." Some of your readers may never have encountered a herd of sheep, but out there in Idaho, I'm sure you have. Their behavior is exactly that of the mass of the American public: timid, fearful, and complacent."
from: 'Out there in North Dakota'...I'm always a bit miffed when the worst traits of human behavior are compared to 'domesticated' sheep behaviors. Maybe my Lincoln cross sheep are abnormal according to the accepted notion of what sheep do.
One of my 300Lb rams can butt a 6'5" man out of the ball park. My ewes will stand together & face off a stray canine. I have had a few coyote 'kills', but only of grazing lambs out from the crew.
For the most part, I don't 'shepherd' my flock. They know to stay close to shelter during their afternoon rest and especially toward nightfall. They view humans as 'useful' to their well being and express appreciation for winter sustenance, however, I suspect they would figure it out themselves if abandoned. They stay together in 'family groups', even mourning their kin being hauled off to market.
Our united efforts as 'shepherds' to get the market lambs up the ramp onto the trailer are met with an ever expanding 'trick bag' of strategies to escape, at which time my usually gently disposed husband speaks 'in tongues'.
Keith
ReplyDeleteJune 12, 2014 at 2:14 PM
ibid
Hello Anon with experience of sheep.
I'm waiting for the water to heat so I can wash away the smell of the buggers. I've been helping keep a bunch of shearers supplied with a constant stream of them for most of today, and the older, more experienced (and obstinate) ones have been doing their best to resist.
my usual trick is to only let two or three into the funnel at the start of the catching race - that way they feel more directly exposed to me and to the dog.
I also stand in their way - if they think I'm chasing them, they'll try to double back - so I pretend to chase them away from the race, and they usually run past me and up the ramp.
If they don't think they can escape, then they act as obstinate as they can manage - no bitchy human can match their level of passive aggression. I think it is intended for me to waste my time and energy, while their sisters and daughters make good their escape.
I think that is what a tired old ewe is doing when she stops acting as though she's no different to the rest of the flock, breaks back with a flamboyant prancing run, then lies down in the huff.
She's drawing the dogs to her - "come and get me" but when she lies down, she's guarding all of the vulnerable bits and denying them a quick kill, they'd have to go through horns, muscle and bone to achieve that kill and while they're busy with her, the rest of the flock puts some serious distance between themselves and what they perceive as predators.
I think we have quite a lot to learn from real sheep.
One of the local stories is of a devout old methodist [that one appears to have been genuinely devout and to have lived his faith - rather than the far more frequently found hypocritical moral busy bodying type], who, when the sheep and the dogs really got to him, would get down on his hands and knees and pull grass and heather up by the roots with his teeth, rather than, as you put it "speak in tongues".