Hercules and Hero the last of the goat kids

Sheep are fairly predictable when about to give birth. They saunter off to a secluded spot and go through the "Natural Lamb Birth" routine. After all of these years I can judge when they are going to lamb. Goats are different in as many ways as there are different goats.

An hour old and up and sucking

Hebe is a drama queen and screamer, the whole village knows what she feels like. Acorn on the other hand is quiet as a mouse. At lunchtime I thought, " nothing will happen until this evening. When I went up the hill at 4.30 to bring them down there were three kids, Acorn had produced twins.

The twins, Hector and Hero, were up and suckling. They had been born on a bed of heather, in the sun with only the lightest of breezes to dry them off. No fuss at all .All they needed was a squirt of iodine on their navels. Mother drank a 5 litre bucket of water without stopping.

Now I have a dilemma. Three male kids have only one useful attribute. They make excellent curry. Disadvantages include being sexually active from about three months of age, it costs fifty pounds for the Vet to de-horn them and my vegetarian family get attached to them.

If we did not kill animals in order to eat them would we be obliged to keep them as animal incompetents, until they died of old age? Better surely to have a short but happy life and humane slaughter than not to have lived at all. Your comments are welcome.