Welcome, strangers! As two lonely abandoned little lambs lay huddled together by the side of the road, a kind heart approached. At first one lamb rose to his feet and attempted to run, but his physical form was unable to meet his desire to flee. Quickly falling to the ground next to his buddy, his body stiffened as his fear raced on. Bundling up the little waifs as the words ‘you’re safe now’ were whispered in their sunburnt ears, the fate of the lambs quickly changed. ‘They’re just bags of wool covered tiny bones” rolled from our shocked lips as our fingers slipped around their tiny ribcages. As the bewildered babes were surrendered into our care thoughts of just who could allow this to happen to animals ran through our heads. But on that we could not dwell as two lives needed our every attention. The petrified looks on their little faces as they scanned their new, unfamiliar world will haunt us forever, so too the grisly sight of their freshly docked little tails. The male lamb, we christened Nugget, suffering the worst, with wriggling maggots oozing out and occasionally falling to the floor. This sickening sight was matched by his shriveled testicle sack that still bore the tight rubber ring that had made it that way. A severe and no doubt painful laceration just above the ring suggesting the poor fellow had struggled and thrashed against the pain as the blood supply was cut, causing an even more ‘biting’ wound. Tailing docking and castration (of male lambs), otherwise known as ‘marking’ are routine farming procedures generally carried out to young lambs under the age of 12 weeks. While pain relief is recommended, logistics and cost prevent its application for the majority of this nations lambs subjected to these amputation procedures. It is worth noting that tail docking has been banned since 2004 for dogs in Australia, and one would never consider such a brutal method of castration for a cat or dog. Although a tail length of two palpable joints is also recommended, this recommendation never hit the ears of the person who applied the tight rubber rings, also known as a lacerators to Nugget and Goldie. A severely short tail docking has been afforded these gentle two, no doubt the stress this imposed has contributed to the depressed state they had been found. Docking so severely has not only posed immediate health risks to the young and vulnerable lambs but will also leave them at a heightened risk of rectal prolapse and in the case of Goldie, squamous cell carcinoma (cancer) of her vulva. Whilst we were soon able to address the immediate physical distress plaguing Nugget and his little buddy, Goldie, and good nutrition and parasite treatment has been offered to assist their internal health our greatest challenge now will be reassuring them not all humans are bad. But on this you can be sure, to us they are more priceless than gold, and they will be strangers to kindness no more! Stay up to date with all our latest rescued by signing up to our blog updates here - edgarsmission.org.au/category/blog/ Want more super cute pics?! Follow us on Instagram (@edgarsmission) or download the Edgars Mission iOS app in the app store! If we could live happy and healthy lives without harming others... why wouldnt we? edgarsmission.org.au
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 11:00:00 +0000
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