When Dan bought the cows and sheep, he went to a ‘reputable’ organic purveyor who was going to guide him through the process. Dan picked out his cows and his sheep in person with this organic farmer. He even paid a premium for pregnant ewes – 9 of them.
When the cows were delivered, Dan discovered that they weren’t the cows he had selected. The cows were mad, bad, and dangerous from day one. So dangerous that the delivery driver refused to come near them. But we stuck it out for 2 and ½ months, trying vainly to get a grasp on what was wrong. When we returned them, they had grown bigger and fatter on our grass but our paddocks were horribly torn up.
In the meantime, we reveled in our sheep. True, they were not the sheep Dan had selected. As an example, he had chosen a dark brown ram and we got an ecru colored one. He was also lame. We have had the vet out but the limping continues. This is one expensive ram. The ewes are pretty much interchangeable in looks except for the black one but they were all supposed to be pregnant with the start of our increased flock. They weren’t. Well, 2 were but the rest were not.
We thought at first that they might have had still births and/or aborted but we carefully walked the paddocks day after day and there was no sign of anything like that.
The sheep also had not been shorn and we couldn’t do it with winter around the corner. So we wait and those poor sheep drag heavy coats sodden with rain around with them. It breaks my heart to see them.
Our neighbors tell us that what we should have done is either buy the livestock and take possession right then or write down the number tags on the selected cows and match them at delivery. For the sheep, we need to spray them with paint on the belly to mark them but it is always safer to take delivery at once.
I think where we went wrong was in assuming that people who professed similar life style beliefs to ours would be similarly ethical. Caveat emptor!
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