It's gettin' that way.

I don't know what the point is to send the animal off to be slaughtered. If I were in charge, I might just do this:

Great, you kids think its somehow funny, or "cool" to vote to have this animal killed (If my kids had voted for this, I would definately be having a sit down with them, that they wouldn't like) I would say, OK, you got it.

YOU kids are going to slaughter this animal. Then you are going to remove the fur, gut it, behead it, cut it up for meat, cook it and eat it. You will gut the wool up and make something out of it. You want the animal dead, great, let's make sure there is no waste going on. Oh, and you're not allowed to leave until the job is done.

Let's see the little darlings laugh after that.

Wish I got to do shit like that when I was a kid.

Hear! Hear!

Mmmmmm... lamb chops

I was raising animals for food from the time I was 9 years old (sometimes I did the butchering and sometimes *bigger animals* professionals did it). I know the difference between a pet and future food. What's so wrong with this? Most people prefer to buy their meat on a foam tray, neatly wrapped in clear plastic but WAKE UP - it used to walk, oink, moo, cluck, or bleat, breathe, and have a normal animal life. Are you cold hearted because you buy and eat it? Geeze. So these kids know where meat comes from. BFD. They're officially better educated than most of the population.
Let me rattle your cage a little more; chickens only have one exit. That's right, the egg and poop come out through the same hole. Enjoy breakfast.

Should I wash my eggs before cracking them in the frying pan?

They are washed during processing so I don't wash eggs I buy at the store. I wash the eggs my wonderful hens give me but that's a given.

I wash my eggs anyway because there are those funky people that have to open the boxes and touch all the eggs and move 'em around and it makes me crazy.
Ms. OCD here.

DUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Are they going to eat it? If so I'm not sure I see the issue.. Lamb is yummy. And kids are evil.

Lamb chops......*Drools*

"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."
Key word...USED
I admit I'm biased, I love animals...this is just, sad.

I don't see what the big deal is. Its lamb. It will make a wonderful meal. The children are well aware of what they are doing. They are being taught about all aspects of farming. That includes slaughtering the livestock. Now I need to go find a nice Indian restaurant to get some Lamb and Mushroom Tandoori.

This is sad. As a vegetarian I find the lack of compassion disturbing. Asking children to make a life death decision is just plain wrong.

But you see, Peace, I slaughter my own so I know exactly what I eat. I know about the animal from the time it's born or I bring it home from the auction. I know all about it while it's growing up. I know about the process of slaughter and the meat & bi-products produced from one animal. I know that if you wear leather, eat jello, take certain medications, or use certain glues, you are involved in the death of animals.

If they only knew about the fertilizer that goes on the plants they eat... Animals being raised for slaughter or ones deemed unfit for consumption. The animals are here for us to eat. If you choose not to eat them its your choice. Personally, I'll take a nice steak or some lamb and mushroom tandoori.

Saying "animals are here for us to eat" is like saying women are here for men, or blacks are here for whites.
It's stupid and completely untrue.

How is it untrue? If we weren't meant to eat animals, we would not have canines. We are omnivores, meaning we are supposed to eat both plants and meat. Our body can only get certain nutrients from certain kinds of meat. In the same respect our body can only get other nutrients from plants. In the hierarchy of the food chain you have herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. If we were not supposed to eat meat then we would be herbivores and since ALL herbivores are prey, we would be hunted and killed by another animal. The fact of the matter is that we exist near the top of the food chain. We are both prey and predator. It is a simple matter of biology and anatomy. Thus animals are made for us to eat and we are made to eat them.

Ive been a vegetarian for over 15 years. Im in perfectly good health. Im actually probably much better off than the people who eat meat on a daily basis. I also love how you ignored the rest of the sentence. It's a perfectly logical argument.
Is it so hard to believe that maybe animals are just here for us to enjoy watching. Maybe theyre meant to live here, just live here.

I'm in perfectly fine health and I haven't eaten vegetables since birth. I am unable to process plant matter. We have canines. Canines are a tooth designed exclusively for eating meat. Molars are exclusively for plants. Incisors are for both. The fact that we have all of those teeth means we are supposed to eat both plants and animals. But you are welcome to keep denying the simple anatomical aspect of your species and become prey if you like.

And youre welcome to continue murdering lambs like Marcus because you think you're superior to everything Then we shall agree to disagree.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no "peace",asking children to make a life or death decision is just the way life is. There's no sense in sheltering children to the point where the think everything lives forever. The circle of life,learn it,live it,love it. Oh yeah one more thing. It's been proven that plants scream when your rip them from the ground. PLANTS ARE ALIVE hence the term "plant life". Don't bother to try spewing some vegan rhetoric such as "but plants want to be eaten".

Apparently it fine to kill plants for consumption but not animals. Friggin' vegetarian hypocrits.

These are children, there are much better ways of teaching about life and death. The project was to teach about farming animals not for these children to make a decision about slaughtering one. How rude of you to warn me not to express myself.

I'm well aware about "plant life". I was expressing my own opinion I don't really care if my life style or my opinions don't fit in with your own.
ASSUME nothing about me it's arrogant.

There's no point in bothering with you any further. You come across as the typical vegetarian,arrogant and so stuck on your own beliefs there is room for nothing else no matter how deeply based in fact it is.

And you have just made our point. "The project was to teach about farming animals..." Farmers raise animals to be slaughtered. Why should these children be taught a half lesson? Do not our children deserve to be taught the full lesson? By your own reasoning then we should censor the bad aspects of everything from our children. So in that case I vote that history class now teach children that Hitler was a great man because he restored the German economy after it was devastated by World War I. That part is very true. I just censored that part where he invaded other nations and killed millions of people based upon a misguided belief that they were inferior purely based upon their genealogy. Come on! You can't seriously think that it is okay to impart half-truths and falsehoods upon children? Farms animals are born, raised, and then slaughtered. It is the way of the farmer. If they were being taught the way of the farmer, then they learned the lesson in its entirety and not only half of it.

When I was a child I was part of the 4-H program. You name your animals. You raise them from birth. You care for them. You train them. Then you auction them off to be slaughtered or have them slaughtered yourself. When I was faced with the decision to auction off one of my rabbits or slaughter it myself, I elected to do it myself. Sneakers made a great BBQ rabbit sandwich. I have raised rabbits, swine, cattle, and when I was very young I participated in the Little Orphan Lamb program. You get a lamb that is about a week old and have to bottle feed it. Once the county fair is over you sell it to the butcher. Its part of the program. Its a fact of life. And as much as I loved my animals, I understood that fact that the program is not to give me a pet but to teach me the aspects of farming. I would say that these children are well aware of the same fact. But I guess if you really disagree with what happened, then you should ensure that all 4-H programs stop the auctions and slaughter of the animals because to participate in 4-H you must be a child.

sounds reasonable to me.

lol I am one of those funky people. You know what the purpose of that is? It is to test the eggs. If they move and are not stuck to the carton then they are not broken and are acceptable for purchase. Washing your store bought eggs, vegetables and fruit is not a bad idea anyway as you do not know who touched it, dropped it or what it has been sprayed with or passed through before they got to you. Even store bought eggs that have been washed do not always have all the bird feces washed away.

I find it equally cold to kill a plant. They to are alive. Although it is a life choice that every person has the right to make and I respect yours, if we were not meant to eat meat we would not have cuspid/canine teeth. I also find vegetarianism interesting because of the amount of animals that die as result of the fertilizers and pesticides used to produce them.

is it not also logical to say that plants are here for us to look and not to eat? Food is food. Humans have incisors and cuspids meaning we are meant to eat both plant and animal. If you do not eat one or the other you must supplement the lack of nutrients.

this has been an interesting article and an even more interesting debate.