• jordanlund@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Reality is worse: 90% of sheep bred for meat are lambs slaughtered at less than 2 years old. Mutton (adult sheep) is cheaper and less preferred.

          • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 days ago

            why should baby animals matter more than any other? one that’s had longer to live and develop relationships surely is worse to be led to slaughter than one with hardly any understanding of the world and their place in it.

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        With how industry has changed chickens… I am always surprised they haven’t managed to modify sheep so that the adults are as desired as the young.

            • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Not a lot. Growth slows down fast when an animal gets older.

              So they are slaughtered at between 6 and 12 months, because that’s the time where the growth slows down too much.

              No point in having a 30% heavier animal if it takes 2x as long to get to that point.

                • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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                  3 days ago

                  Yeah, it’s like with the human term “child”. A child is anything from birth until age 12 or so. There’s quite a bit of a difference in that age range.

                  For sheep, a lamb is anything up to roughly a year.

                  In fact, sheep enter puberty at ~3-4 months, so a lamb will usually be slaughtered during puberty.