Cows in Cumbria Flooding -very sad

[Tobi]

I heard today that the cows and sheep are in danger in the terrible flooding which is happening in Cumbria, northern England.

Apparently sheep have been put into barns, and aren't as badly off as the cows, though many who survived the flooding will still be in great danger from being wet. There seems to be no way to get them dry, and being constantly wet will most likely cause them to develop pneumonia. Many animals will not survive this.

We hear a lot on the news about the floods, but nothing much about the animals on radio news.


The story of many animals who drowned:
https://www.fginsight.com/news/thousands...loods-8616

Here is another article:
http://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/farming/...57845b3-ds

Meanwhile more rain is forecast, and it seems there is no change in the weather in sight yet.

[Knight of Albion]

Very sad. Though they are all destined for the slaughterhouse remember. So either way....

But I know what you're alluding to. When people see 'death' it evokes sorrow and sympathy. Sorrow and sympathy lacking when they do the weekly shop at the supermarket.
If slaughterhouses had glass walls .....


Global warming. It's a game-changer. Very wet here, but mild. Knocking on the door of January, but I've yet to don a sweater ..

[Tobi]

Yes true, Knight. When animals are in trouble, people are very sorry and care.
When they are NOT in trouble, people are very happy to send them to the slaughterhouse, let them be packaged into little square trays, buy them at the supermarket -and eat them!

The weather is -particularly unusual this year in my area of the UK. It is common to get a milder spell just around Christmas time, before the cold weather starts again in January. But....this time it is very different. I have seen too many 'signs of Spring' which started to happen well before the winter solstice. Daffodils and Snowdrops have started to flower, and at the same time summer roses are still in bloom! I have heard a Blackbird singing. (unheard of at this time of year.) And the grass is growing a lot. Soon I will need to mow the lawn!
Some trees have not completely lost their Autumn leaves....and yet I have seen new buds. It is all very topsy-turvy.

[Catherine]

I heard about the flooding and I wondered how the farm animals were doing.

There is no doubt the weather is crazy.  The seasons seem to be mixed up. We have floods in one place and droughts in another.
Either way animals suffer.

If the farm animals had it so bad, what about the wild creatures who live  along the rivers and in the fields.  I am sure some of them didn't make it.

[Tobi]

Yes, I often think of those little creatures at times like this. Some would be okay, and head for higher ground, like Foxes. I wonder about Badgers...They can move fast when they want to, but are very tied by tradition....traditional trackways, burrows, etc. Little water rats etc might be caught short by the water. And of course, probably hundreds of thousands of insects.
They are the 'unnoticed ones' in our midst.

[Catherine]

If the river overflowed suddenly the wild animals might not have had much notice to move.  Still they might have sought higher ground before that point.

Are a lot of the farms so low lying that they do not have higher ground to move their animals to? If you live in a flood prone area are there precautions you can take?