Petition signed by 60,000 fails to halt Masham Fair sheep race
PEOPLE should dress up as sheep instead of subjecting animals to races, protesters have claimed – but a farmer has hit back and said sheep are natural runners.
More than 60,000 animal rights activists signed a petition calling for sheep racing to be banned at Masham Sheep Fair in the Yorkshire Dales.
Samantha Francis, who launched the petition, branded the races “unnatural, exploitative and degrading.”
She added that there were alternatives. “Parents could dress up as sheep, or children could take part as a fun activity, just something where the creatures taking part give their consent,” she said.
Mark Cunliffe-lister, 47, who owns the sheep involved in the race, said: “I was aware of the petition but nobody has come to see me or the races despite them taking place in the last few days.
“We have had concerns expressed before and invited an RSPCA inspector to the race in previous years who said there was no issue.”
Graham Bottley, who farms sheep and runs sheep handling courses, has also dismissed the petition.
He said: “Firstly, sheep are very much running animals… lambs will spend a good deal of their time racing each other in the summer, and even adult sheep will do this in the spring and early summer.
“If you take food into a sheep field, they all run across. Sheep run, and are in no way stressed by that.”
Campaigners have suggested that it is cruel for sheep to run in races traditionally held at Masham Fair in the Yorkshire Dales, demanding that the events be replaced by “something where the creatures taking part give their consent”. It is unclear how such consent might be given, but perhaps a straw poll would do, or a simple show of hooves. Democracy is a process that is not easy to control, however – just ask David Cameron. Is it impossible that a vote (the ewes to the right, etc) might actually result in increased ovine participation in races? Of course not. Once one of the creatures had voted in favour, the rest would be sure to follow. Indeed that, as George Orwell noted, would soon present a problem for organisers. Soon a militant cry would go up: “Four furlongs good, two furlongs better!”