Visiting kids and livestock

[Maralynn]

I'm wondering if/how you deal with visitors, especially kids wanting to interact with your livestock.

 

In my situation, most of my sheep are kept nearby at my grandparents farm. The farm has been in the family for many years and is the site of at least 3 or 4 extended family gatherings a year. I've got several young cousins, but they understand to stay out of the pasture and be careful around the animals. But once and a while kids come that have no clue about livestock, and don't follow instructions. I know the sheep are different and exciting, but they don't get that sheep can be dangerous!!

 

I try to give them safe opprotunities to be around the sheep - throw a few ears of corn over the fence, pet the sheep through the fence etc., but still get the occasional kid who won't listen - "I petted the big one with horns he likes me" Argh!!!

 

I hate being the mean one, but can't see any other way to get some kids to listen. Any ideas?

[Shoofly]

Two words. Hot wire.

[Maralynn]

I like that idea!

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Robin :eek:

 

Two more words, liability insurance!

 

I'm assuming the sheep are in something like a board fence enclosure where the kids can climb through? Can you back the accessible areas with wire?

 

I wouldn't encourage ANY interaction with the sheep if it is truly unsafe. I don't have any sheep here that wouldn't be fine for the kids to be around except in theory, the ram (though so far he's been a real sweetheart, I never assume). Mine just run the other way and there's nowhere they could get cornered.

 

Are your sheep really people friendly? I can't imagine kids getting anywhere near mine, honestly - in fact I've had school days when I demonstrated why we use the dogs - I get three or four volunteers to attempt to put a collar on any sheep in the flock. They never succeed - it's pretty funny.

 

Anyway, if your sheep are friendly then you might have to protect them since they won't do it themselves. I can only advise that you put them in a child-safe enclosure if children are expected. If anything happens, there's no way to blame the child or even the parents. And you can't MAKE children listen, especially when they are not your children.

[Carson Crazies]

Duct Tape.

 

Seriously, though, would it be possible to contain the main flock out of the children's reach (say a paddock away from the crowd, behind the barn, etc) and bring out two or three to meet the kids? Give a nice little sermon on sheep husbandry, and allow for ooh and ahhhhh, then back with the flock (away from the kids) they go?

[Dixie_Girl]

CRATE TRAIN THEM! (the younguns, not the sheep) Sheryl uses this method, and it works great! LOL JK (referring to her nephew, who likes to lock hisself in the dogs crate)

[kajarrel]

I don't think you should feel at all mean by setting realistic boundaries for kids and enforcing them. When kids visit, I typically warn parents that electric fence is on (and can kill a toddler), horses kick, rams will butt, rooster may attack, etc. The parents will often keep the kids in line when they understand the dangers/rules. If this didn't occur (and this has never been the case) they wouldn't be invited back or only without the kids. I don't mind being the local petting zoo, and recognize that accidents happen, but we can't have people around here that increase the chances of something happening.

 

One thing I have found that works for older kids (neighbors and family members who visit more often) is to involve them in the animals' care - fun and not so fun - this puts the rules in context and lets them see that being around animals is not just fun and games (but IS often fun).

 

Honestly, we haven't had a lot of problems with kids. Guess we're lucky.

 

Kim

[Maralynn]

Duct tape - even better! But a crate is tempting also...

 

2 years ago I had a calm, easy going, yearling ewe butt a cousin and break his collarbone. He was with my Grandma at the time and she never saw it coming. So while my sheep usually move away, and are pretty calm, I'm just aware that anything can happen. It doesn't help that one ram was shown as a youngster and is the "friendly" type.

 

I don't have any qualms about my 7 and 9 y/o siblings being around the sheep, but they understand animals - and follow directions.

 

Shutting the sheep in the barn is probably the best idea. It's just hard when there are overnight guests. I've just got one big pasture right now, but would like to section it off. Maybe now's the time, and hopefully out of sight out of mind.

[Jo&Tex]

Duct Tape!!!

If you wind it around them backwards at first, it doesn't leave marks!

I know about these things. I'm a school bus driver.

We have a saying; "Children are not careless, they are carefree"

They don't think about danger the same way grown ups do (or should).

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

CRATE TRAIN THEM! (the younguns, not the sheep) Sheryl uses this method, and it works great! LOL JK (referring to her nephew, who likes to lock hisself in the dogs crate)

 

 

Hey stop giving away my babysitting secrets!!

[Jordi44]

Shoofly - thanks, I needed that laugh - although I do like the hot wire idea - and the crate and duct tape.

 

Maralynn - you feel mean now - how will you feel when (not if, but when) one of the little brats gets plastered? My sheep aren't mean, but all it takes is them to be spooked (gee, a kid running and yelling sheepy at them would never do that) and they could run you down pretty easily. And while I've had some wonderful rams, I've never had one I could trust 100% - although some of my boys have actually been better than some of my girls. Plus, you never know how any animal will react to someone strange - and adults as well as kids that don't have clue are prime targets - they don't know the correct thing, let alone be able to recognize a bad situation. I once had a BC that would be staring them down, growling, teeth bared - and they still wanted to pet him - not even always asking if they could - so yes, even relatives are stupid - or in the case of some of mine, definitely.

 

What about the parents of these kids? Could you explain to them that even Little Bo Peep's sheep ran away - use small words and speak slowly - I find that useful with certain types.

 

If all else fails, stop all the parents of the attending children as they step from their cars and have them sign a release form stating that you and the property owners are NOT responsible for any injuries sustained from entering livestock enclosures - or some such gibberish. Either way, release forms tend to get people's attention. Relatives are sometimes the worst since you just can't tell them off - you have to try to keep the peace too. Good luck

[Bill Fosher]

When I was farming in Massachusetts in a suburban setting, it wasn't at all uncommon to have half a dozen families -- some of whom I had never seen before -- pull up in the barnyard uninvited and simply start wandering through the shed during lambing.

 

I would have to stop what I was doing, go over and introduce myself, and lay out the ground rules. The biggest ones were no running, no yelling, and no flapping.

 

Most of the families were pretty good. The kids would get excited sometimes and need to be reminded, and we never had what I would consider an unfortunate incident.

 

Teenagers with sheep on pasture were another matter. I happened to see my sheep stampeding one evening, and noticed a group of teenagers were running after them. They entered the field through a closed gate and were playing some sort of game back in there.

 

As they saw my truck coming up the lane at a decent clip, they exited the paddock through the electric fence, which must have been fairly exciting as it was carrying about 4 kV at the time and bolted toward a house that abutted the farm.

 

A few words to the parents and it never happened again.

 

If I had stayed on the farm, I probably would have set visiting hours during lambing time, and gotten some handouts printed up with the ground rules.

 

The main thing you need to remember, as Jordi44 is pointing out, is that you can't take anything for granted. Don't assume that people know how to behave around animals, or that they can read the signs of an animal that's frightened. In the eyes of a child and an ignorant parent, running after the sheep is a fun game, not a stressful persuit of an animal that is running for its life.

 

Most people are simply ignorant. They are not malicious. There was one father who really wanted to have his kids climb in with the sheep so he could take a picture of them holding lambs. I said no, because the lambs were not pets and it would stress both them and the mothers. He pushed and pleaded. Finally I asked what he did for a living. He worked for an insurance company.

 

"How would you handle it if I came to your office and wanted to have my kids open up your filing cabines and pull out some of your files so that I could get a picture of them pretending to be actuaries?"

 

Then he started to get it -- this was not a theme park, but a place of business.