Come on rural New Zealand, take a giant leap into 2011 and realise that all animals have feelings and emotions just like we humans, and should be treated as such.
Can we instead use some imagination and create another type of rural event, and stop this cruel and inhumane sheep run?Lesley RainbowAuckland
Why it is wrongI have just been alerted to this very dumb idea by Safe and the SPCA. Below is their list of reasons why this activity should be cancelled. There is no better way to say it so I have simply cut and pasted their post.
I was raised on a sheep farm and find this a despicable way to treat such kind and adorable animals.
Why is it wrong?
Subjects animals to needless stress and risk of injury.
It risks breaching the Animal Welfare Act and causing the sheep unnecessary distress and torment.
It perpetuates that animals can be treated without respect and that it is acceptable to mistreat and abuse animals for entertainment.
A similar event in Te Kuiti in 2009 resulted in serious problems when 1500 sheep began to leap over fencing in a state of panic on the main street and bowled one woman over in their eagerness to escape, knocking her unconscious.
Safe and the SPCA, the country's largest animal advocacy groups, do not support this event on the basis that it subjects animals to considerable stress and distress.
An online poll conducted by Central FM had over half (52 per cent) of the respondents voting Running of the Sheep was cruel.
Alexandra D. Cohen, Auckland
Stupid idea
Who came up with this stupid idea?
Personally I think it is just plain dumb and not original at all - and does it look good?
People must think NZ is a Third World farmer country. It also perpetuates that animals can be treated without respect and that it is acceptable to mistreat and abuse animals for entertainment.
We can do better than this.
Hope that there are some people with common sense in Waipukurau.
Marlena Simon, Piha
Sheep mustering
Muster, I think is the word Elizabeth O'Connor (HB Today 22nd Aug) was searching for when criticising Waipukurau Running of the Lambs. Farmers don't "force" sheep down roads, they muster them and it's something that hundreds of farmers do up and down NZ roads every day, muster their sheep. So get yourself out of Wellington, Ms O'Connor and visit provincial NZ and have a look at what goes on, you never know you might even enjoy it. Grant DiverNapier Country's backboneIn response to the letter written by Elizabeth O'Connor of Wellington re running of sheep. I would like to point out that herding, mobbing and driving of sheep is a normal practice on all sheep farms in New Zealand. Dogs and men are needed to help with these tasks. This country has survived financially for generations on the back of the sheep farming industry.
Recently I was in St Remy in Provence, France where I saw 2000 sheep driven down the main street as they were moved to mountain pastures for the summer.
Good on Waipukurau for celebrating farming as part of their Spring Festival. I have never seen a sheep die of anxiety or cruelty through these practices. Stop dumbing down this land.
We are a dreary country. Get a life. We need to celebrate what we have.
Richard Moorhead, Havelock North
