The sheep tail length controversy – It’s baaaack
August 1st, 2007
It’s unfortunate that the sheep tail length controversy has revisited the Carroll County Fair this year.
Rumblings about this matter began Sunday and reached a crescendo yesterday.
I was tied up meeting my deadline on this Wednesday’s Tentacle column on local Baltimorean and McDonogh graduate, Joltin’ John Bolton and trying to find my desk after being away on vacation. I figured that Carrie Ann Knauer, would pick up the story and do a great job with it. I was not disappointed.
Ms. Knauer, writing for the Carroll County Times, has posted an excellent article on the sheep tail length matter in today’s, Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 paper. Please go here and be sure to read her article: “Sheep tail length issue resurfaces at fair.”
Additionally, if you have further feedback about this, please be sure to let Ms. Knauer know on her “Fair Blog” on the Carroll County Times web site. She has an excellent reporter’s notebook post that you want to be sure to read: “No fingers to point.” Click here.
For more information, Ms. Knauer calls to our attention this web site: http://www.sheepandgoat.com/
Of course, we are concerned about the welfare of the sheep, but our attention must not stray from the 4-H’ers…
These young 4-H’ers labor all year focused on showing their hard work this week and everything needs to be done to err on the side of what is in the best interests of the young adults.
This is the week; this opportunity does not come back.
According to Ms. Knauer, writing on her Fair Blog:
“The fair board decided to let children who lost their only lamb to continue in the competition, still able to win ribbons, but not to let them participate in the livestock auction. Children who still had a different sheep that was eligible could not use the disqualified ones. Everyone still gets to participate in some way, though maybe not with their best animal. What more could the county fair board have done in this situation?”
The Fair Board made the correct decision and certainly went beyond the call of duty to abate an otherwise, unfortunate situation.
But then again, this Fair Board is known for making lemons into lemonade.
These folks also work year round to make the best Fair in the state happen, and it shows. However, look up the Fair Board in the dictionary and the second definition is constant problem solving in a manner that is win-win for everyone.
As far as the judging of the length of sheep tails… Many unsubstantiated reports have circulated about inconsistencies, insensitivities and callousness in the application of the rules and that only makes matters worse.
Young adults will have plenty of other opportunities in life to become disappointed as a result of arbitrary consequences when a person has otherwise done everything possible to do it right. They don’t need to learn these lessons at this age – at a country fair.
Certainly, as with all rules, there are those who will try and skirt the rules, but on the backchannel, I have been told that each and every 4-H’er involved understands the reason for the sheep tail length rule and has worked to comply.
As Ms. Knauer, ever so adroitly informs us, simply stated, if the tail is docked – cut – too short, it causes the sheep to suffer rectal prolapse. Ms. Knauer quotes J. Willard Lemaster, “a sheep specialist with the Maryland Cooperative Extension, which oversees the Maryland 4-H program:” “the state's goal of having three vertebras in a tail to help prevent rectal prolapse in the sheep.”
Certainly one of the challenges with following the rule are the fact that nearby Pennsylvania does not have the rule. This cuts off a plentiful supply of sheep for the 4-H’ers to use. Usually the tail has already been cut off when a 4-H’er purchases the animal.
Legislation was dropped in the hopper during the last session of the Maryland General Assembly by the Harford County Delegation to Annapolis to address the issues. The Maryland General Assembly, that can otherwise freely and easily stick its nose where it does not belong, refused to take up the issue, deferring to the scientists at the University of Maryland.
Okay, I can live with this – but somehow, adequate education efforts need to be redoubled to get the word out about the sheep tail length rule so that we can do away with the heartbreak of child working all year, trying to do the right thing and having an entire year’s work thrown out the building over, what is perhaps an inconsistent application of a science-based rule – being applied unscientifically.
So what is the rule? According to the December 2004, Volume 3, Issue 6 publication of “Maryland Sheep and Goat Producer:”
Maryland 4-H Sheep Tail Docking Policy, December 7, 2004 - Revised for 2005: Lambs born after January 1, 2005 will be accepted for exhibition only if tails are not shorter than the distal end of the caudal tail fold. Lambs that are properly docked will have a minimum length of 0.7 inches at show, measured by the approvement measurement device, which will be placed against the base of the tail and pin bones.”
The purpose of the device is to measure tail (dock) length in show lambs to determine compliance with mandatory tail docking policies. In Maryland, a minimum tail (dock) length of 0.7 inches will be required for 4-H lambs in 2005.
Lambs born after January 1, 2005 will be accepted for exhibition only if tails are not docked shorter than the level of the distal end of the caudal tail fold. Lambs that are properly docked will have a minimum length of 0.7 inches at show, measured by the approved measurement device, which will be placed against the base of the tail and pin bones.
There are two lines etched on the tail measuring device : 0.7 inches and 1.4 inches. If a lamb’s tail is 1.4 inches or more at the time of "weaning,"research shows that there is a 99 percent probability that the lamb’s tail will be 0.7 inches or longer at the time of show.
The tail measuring device is not an aid for tail docking. The recommended place to dock lambs is the distal end of the caudal tail fold. Research shows that lambs docked at this location have a 99 percent probability of having a tail that is at least 0.7 inches at the time of show.
Click HERE to see the recommended location for tail docking.
Tail Measuring Device Available
The device to measure tail (dock) length in lambs is now commercially available from Pipestone Vet Supply and NASCO. The device sells for approximately $6.
As Ms. Knauer delicately informs us: “rectal prolapse … is similar to hemorrhoids in humans, and imaginably uncomfortable and unhealthy for the animal.”
Right now, many of the folks involved with the Fair – now have a major case of hemorrhoids, for which they are now on “IV Preparation H.”
It’s time to get this pain in the ass problem solved.
Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org
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