Of all the animals of prey, man is the only sociable one.
Every one of us preys upon his neighbour, and yet we herd together.
The Beggar's Opera: John Gay

Sunday 22 May 2011

For goodness' sake - it's only meat!

'A lamb which was dumped in a wheelie bin has found a new home - with comedian Paul O'Grady. The month-old lamb, named Winston, was found in the rubbish in Manchester on April 18.

After hearing about its plight*, O'Grady, who already has a small flock of sheep, volunteered to re-home the animal.


The lamb received treatment for an ulcerated eye but was otherwise unharmed. It was bottle-fed by a fosterer around the clock before being transported to O'Grady's property in Kent last week.'

At last, a happy ending; O'Grady, readers may remember, tried unsuccessfully to step in when Marcus (or Market), a sheep reared for meat on a Kent primary school farm, was due for his appointment at the local abattoir and a parent objected, precipitating a media storm.

I think this calls for a song....

A poor little lamb's in the news today,
Baa, baa, baa,
For Paul O’Grady’s got his way,
Baa, baa, baa.
This time he’s pulled all the strings to see
The lamb will be given its liberty
Instead of ending as fricassee,
Baa, baa, baa.


*I have corrected the original Press Association press release which contained - sorry to say - a misplaced apostrophe. What are the requirements for working for a press agency these days?

2 comments:

  1. "What are the requirements for working for a press agency these days?"

    No sense of shame..?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Galling, isn't it? These people are paid to do one thing - and they can't even do that properly.

    We're all vulnerable to the occasional typo, of course, but this would surely have been proof-read before release.

    Perhaps they are relying on their WP's built-in grammar checker - always a bad move, or maybe they were just badly educated. I suspect that, within a few years, no-one under 40 will know the correct use of 'it's' versus 'its'.

    ReplyDelete

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