(This is a response to a letter in last month’s Shuttle. Read it at www.weaversway.coop/mcbride-letter.)

Dear Nell,

Thank you for your concern about our 4-H animals of Manatawna-Saul 4-H Club who participated in last month’s Petapalooza at the request of Weavers Way Co-op. As the current Sheep Leader at M-S 4-H, a longtime Weavers Way working member, and a vegetarian and animal lover, I’d like to clarify a few things.

First of all, you are correct in saying that, traditionally, 4-H (“Head, Heart, Hands & Health”) is an agriculturally focused organization. Pennsylvania is predominantly an agricultural state, and part of 4-H’s role in our Commonwealth is to promote and support agriculture. But 4-H does not just grow future farmers. It also grows veterinarians, scientists, environmentalists, public leaders and, in the case of our 4-H club, even vegetarians, vegans, community activists, and animal advocates. 

Yes, our sheep and other animals are predominantly market animals, and our kids do learn how to care for their animals — how to give inoculations, and assess their health; how to feed, groom and medicate. They learn biology, anatomy and physiology. Perhaps more importantly, they learn about committing and working hard cooperatively. They also learn hard lessons about the life cycles of animals in the human (and pet) food chain through their firsthand experience with birth and death on the farm. They are confronted on a weekly basis with ethical questions about where their food comes from, and they learn to raise their market animals humanely and ethically. 

Our animals are pasture-raised on our 76-acre farm in Upper Roxborough, and are very much loved and compassionately cared for by our families from the moment they are born, in early Spring, until they go to market in January. While I will agree that traveling to events such as Petapalooza can be stressful for our animals, our events are specifically limited in time and locale to ensure that morning and evening feedings are absolutely not affected, and that the stress of traveling and being out in unfamiliar surroundings is minimized. The reality is that these events are a necessary part of being able to pay for the upkeep of our 4-H animals, which are well fed and receive top-quality veterinary care from Quakertown Veterinary Hospital. If you observed our animals at all during their time at Petapalooza, you would have seen that they were relaxed, well cared for and very comfortable hanging out with their child/owner, each of whom have known them since birth and spent the last six months lovingly hand-raising them.

So please understand that while we appreciate your concern about the animals, as it mirrors our own, your disparaging remarks about our 4-H club are misdirected and hurtful to the children (and their parents) who spend hours every week working tirelessly to care for our special flock, doing what most people cannot: putting a face to their food. 

Yes, we teach our children how to raise farm animals, and these animals do go to slaughter, but we are also teaching them how to do so mindfully and with compassion, and in a way of which we are all extremely proud. For that, the kids of 4-H should not just be supported, they should be applauded.