Sheep Tales

“Leave them alone and they’ll come home, wagging their tails behind them.”

In our travels around NZ we’ve seen many sheep. At one of the first sheep shearing shows that we went to, we were educated about why none of the sheep we saw had tails as in the Little Bo Peep nursery rhyme. It turns out that there is a very practical and hygienic reason for sheep to be parted from their tails. Here’s another look at those sheep we passed through on our drive out of Mt. Cook; notice that there is very little in the tail area.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova almost boycotted the Australian Open one year due to the fact that Aussies observe the same practice. Even more veteran tennis legend, Australian Margaret Court, invited Martina to the Court’s sheep station to learn a little more about the procedure of removing the sheep tails. I don’t know if Martina ever took her up on her offer, but here’s what we’ve been told about it. Sheep spend the vast majority of their lives out in fields munching vegetation and occasionally running from cute sheep dogs. There are no baths and with the amount of rain that these lands see, there is a good deal of mud. Add to that the fact that the sheep have no way to, ahem, clean their bottoms, and “matter” often collects in this region. The sheep then run the risk of having “small pests” attracted to their derrieres, which in turn leave other unwanted guests in the guise of, well, maggots. Ewwwww! I can hear you saying, because that’s exactly what we said when we first heard it. So to alleviate this problem, the sheep ranchers remove the sheep’s tails, leaving the area to clean in a relatively natural way.

Several weeks ago, Mark and I were walking through some fields above our house and found some sheep with their tails intact. I never knew they were so long! I wonder if these sheep belong to Martina...