fiat_knox | And apparently the lamb has now been culled ...

Okay, last week a group of schoolchildren who had been raising a sheep from a lamb voted to conclude their project by taking the creature to slaughter so they could understand the whole process that goes into making meat on the dinner plate, more or less from birth to butcher's.

Now this raised a bit of a stink in the press, desperate to bury some bad news in politics no doubt by foisting this mindless bit of puppet theatre upon the somnambulent public, but now the vote of the children has been heard, and according to the news Marcus the lamb is now nothing more than consumable protein.

"The educational farm was started this year, with Marcus being hand-fed by the children. The children also look after ducks, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs.

"The intention had been to buy pigs with the money raised from slaughtering Marcus, but those plans have been put on hold following the furor created by the lamb's culling. The school said the program may now have to be stopped.

""It's all up in the air," said a member of staff. "There's been so much pressure on us as a result of all this."

"Despite that, the school said there had been overwhelming support among the children, the staff and most of the parents to have Marcus -- a castrated male who could not have been used for breeding -- sent to the slaughterhouse.

"But opponents branded it heartless and cruel, with animal rights campaigners asking why Marcus could not have been used to teach the children about wool, and human rights campaigners worried about the emotional impact of Marcus's death on the children."

Who's being serious here, and who's being insane? (And who is playing this for a laugh?)

Certainly not the children, it would seem.

Oh. And in completely unrelated news, when I posted to mourn the demise of Patrick Swayze and Keith Floyd, I hoped there'd be no third one. It looks like BBC reporter Brian Barron dashed that hope by being the third one, after all.