Decisions on Culling

what makes one more worthy than another?

The nature of the flock is expansive. Nature has ways of keeping numbers in check—predation, illness, starvation, battles to the death between rams—so that the flock is kept in balance with the land, waxing and waning with the seasons in a constant flow of homeostasis. In nature, only the strongest, most well adapted or just plain lucky survive to pass on their genes into the next season of expansion, and only the strongest of those born will survive. Such is the unforgiving cycle of nature. Life is fleeting, beautiful and brutal.

As shepherds, we have assumed responsibility for the lives we nurture and protect, and we have an obligation to see that responsibility through to the end. We have a duty of care for our flock and the land which includes death, timely and sure. This is the reality: death is inevitable in the cyclical processes of raising animals, and making the decision on who stays and who goes is a necessary part of managing the flock. The health and vitality of the flock a…