January 11, 2007: Ewes die of asphyxiation, fright

[milkfish]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Looking at the "ring around the corral" (bad pun) I note the grime, which leads me to wondering if they all made it a habit to congregate and poop in the area. Thermal inversion, methane, and that's HH's creeping gas theory. And methane displacing O2 is asphyxiation if I'm not mistaken.

Methane is lighter than air, so would not work for what you propose.

[xoxoxoBruce]

paridera
1- adj. [Female] fertilizes of any species:
paridera cow.
2- f. Site in which it stops the cattle, specially the wool one.
3- Action and time to give birth the cattle.

Loarre is a villa of the province of Huesca, municipality pertaining to the region Hole of Huesca. It is located to the foot of the mountain range of his own name to 27 km to NOT of Huesca in the A-1206 highway between Bolea and Ayerbe

[WabUfvot5]

They needn't all have suffocated. It says they died of asphyxiation and fright. It's possible the ones in back couldn't breath while the others died from fright. Perhaps their little hearts burst from pumping too fast.

[Hoof Hearted]

Sheep ARE very stupid, however having raised lambs for 4-H and being around large groups of sheep pressing together...they cannot press together (while standing with all 4 feet on the ground) enough to prevent them from being able to breathe. Their wool is a very good buffer between each other, allowing air space and room to expand their lungs.
And while I concur about sheep stupidity...I cannot see that many dying of fright from some large birds. These animals are harried by humans, dogs and various other predators...I've never heard of them dropping dead from fright. Turkeys, on the other hand...

I wonder if someone forgot to WATER these animals and has concocted a story to save their ass.

Also, the ring around the wall is from the lanolin sheep produce getting rubbed on the surface and dust sticking. Check out doorways in barns and such where the animals' bodies rub as they go past...it is always dirty from the oils of their coat and dust.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by milkfish

Methane is lighter than air, so would not work for what you propose.

I proposed a thermal inversion which I believe would prevent the methane from rising. But then I also believe a lot of other things too, so take it for what it's worth.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Hoof Hearted

... being around large groups of sheep pressing together...they cannot press together (while standing with all 4 feet on the ground) enough to prevent them from being able to breathe. Their wool is a very good buffer between each other, allowing air space and room to expand their lungs.

In the open, yes. But what about a large flock up against an immovable object? A very large flock to kill 300 ewes.

[Hoof Hearted]

The posted picture does not show 300 ewes, and I've seen sheep ranching, shearing, and butchering operations with wooden pens holding hundreds to thousands of sheep crowing each other so tightly the dogs had to walk on the backs of the sheep to get across the pen to do their work of cutting animals out for sorting.

I cannot dispute that the animals are dead, they certainly are, but it seems improbable to me that they died in the manner they are claimed to have...trampoling seems most likely...but again, I find it odd that they are in a single layer and not piled or overlapping.

My reasoning behind thinking sheep could not squeeze other sheep up against an immoveable wall is because of their short legs and lack of leverage and weight. Animals are going to stand. Some will lean, but most will keep their legs under them. It is instinctive. If you are off balance, you could fall and die. Period. All animals want to stand upright to survive. They do not want to be down, and especially upside-down is anathema to them.
I would expect that sheep at the outer edge of a herd WILL press away from whatever is stimulating them. The other sheep (away from the stimulation) are not going to react very much at all. As soon as they are out of sight of the stimulation (stupid sheep) out-of-sight-out-of-mind, they will just stand. Their wool will create the buffer needed to breathe. The few leaning sheep are not enough weight to crush other sheep up against a wall.

These ewes appear to have died where they stood. Asphyxiation from air displacement seems likely, as stated...but I feel poisoning from contaminated feed could also be a likely culprit and could cause them to die en mass in a single layer.
I'd like to know what a necropsy had to say about cause of death...

[xoxoxoBruce]

I agree the story and picture don't jib...not 300....not piled. Another tragic victim of Babelfish?

[SPUCK]

The problem was one of them tried to light a fart and we got the "Moderator Island effect."

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by DucksNuts

™??

yeah, that. how?

[yesman065]

Um, maybe the ones that didn't die were let out before the picture was taken - just a thought.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

how the fuck do you make that little TM ?!

It looks grim, especially given our ban on embedded html. I reckon the best you could do is to make the size = 1, perhaps enclosed in parentheses... Don't know how to superscript it here. Good luck.

(TM)

or

(TM)

You will note that there is no Character Entity or Numeric Entity for the character 'trademark' (TM). Unlike characters such as © or ® the TM is simply that, just a T and an M. You can display the trademark with either just TM, with emphasis with a bold face like TM, or in super script like TM (^TM).

Originally Posted by lumberjim

yeah, that. how?

™

ampersand,pound sign,1,5,3,semicolon.

[footfootfoot]

huh ™

[BigV]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

huh ™

You can't use like that, footfootfoot, without GWB's permission. fyi.