Anger over school sheep slaughter

Parents at a Kent primary school are angry that a sheep hand-reared by pupils is to be slaughtered for meat. The lambs were bottle-fed by the children and taken into assembly.

Meat from neutered male Marcus, one of three sheep cared for at a farm set up in the spring at Lydd Primary School, is to be raffled to buy more animals.

Head teacher Andrea Charman said the school council voted for the slaughter. Last term the school council, made up of 14 seven to 11-year-olds, voted 13 to one in favour of sending Marcus to slaughter rather than keeping him.



Tickets are being sold in shops in Lydd to raffle the meat. Money raised will go to buy pigs, from which sausages will eventually be made.

Mother Jo Davis said it was a disgrace that the sheep fed by hand by her eight-year-old daughter Megan was to be slaughtered and sold.

"I feel this is the same as my daughter coming home from school to find her pet rabbit bubbling away on the stove in a stew," said Ms Davis.

With news video.