How Libs Think
By Mitch Berg
A Pennsylvania school district opted to save $15,000 a year via some fairly ingenious thinking:
In Carlisle, Pennsylvania, [cuts to the education budget] meant putting an end to traditional means of cutting grass at two local schools. Instead of lawnmowers, the schools are using sheep:
Rather than spend money on cutting grass, the Carlisle School District has brought in 7 Romney sheep to tend the fields. “They’ve done a good job so far,” says Superintendent John Friend.
The sheep come free of charge, since they belong to the principal of the middle school. Friend estimates that they will save the district about $15,000 this year in mowing costs.
Speaking as a metro resident, this seems like a great idea. Think of how much money and time metro park and rec districts and public works departments we could save by importing sheep to mow parks, roadsites and other areas we currently have to pay to mow!
Silly? Maybe.
What’s not so silly is the response:
While the $15,000 saved will barely make a dent in Carlisle’s $2 million budget gap, Pennsylvania could render the draconian education cuts unnecessary if it ended special interest tax breaks benefiting corporations and natural gas companies.
In other words, “don’t bother thinking and getting creative – just raise taxes”.
August 25th, 2011 at 7:31 am
sheep have been used in the past to mow the white house lawn. I believe it was a TR idea. I am surprised that many of these so called “Green” politicians haven’t replicated TR.
They could make a sheppard’s union, a sheep chipper’s union, a shearer’s union and give away millions in grants to study the effects of urban grass on sheep just to keep the academics happy.
August 25th, 2011 at 8:04 am
My great grandfather did this for while. He ultimately decided he spent more time cleaning up after the sheep than he ever did mowing the grass.
August 25th, 2011 at 8:06 am
The nice thing about it is, sheep eat most common lawn weeds, too! But, I have to agree with smith64B – in this case, the cure is perhaps as bad as the disease.
August 25th, 2011 at 9:24 am
These folks are ahead of me. I can envision a $17,000 expenditure for union sheep manure removal.
August 25th, 2011 at 9:42 am
It wouldn’t be long before the ruminants themselves unionized. Sheep are good union material.
August 25th, 2011 at 9:49 am
sheep mowing the lawn – not a bad idea until the sheep figure out what “retirement dinner” means!
August 25th, 2011 at 10:51 am
I pursued some links cited in the article. The progs in Penn were up in arms over the practice of streaming income through Delaware, a relative tax haven right next door. If only the loopholes were closed and corporations paid their “fair share” (heard that before?) then everything would be coming up roses in Pennsylvania. The author cited California as an early (1937) example of closing the “loophole”. A few clicks later I was at the website of the Tax Foundation and I learned that California is ranked 49th in business tax climate; Pennsylvania 26th, Delaware 8th; Minnesota 43rd; South Dakota 1st. Want to guess which states are over budget big time? That’s right.
Somehow, progs just don’t understand that raising taxes on corporations and individuals is not a substitute for spending less money in the first place.
August 25th, 2011 at 11:47 am
Golfdoc, why do you believe that millionaires should get tax breaks for flying their private jets to exclusive golf courses while children go hungry?
August 25th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Because caddys need to feed their kids? And pilots? And ground crew? And air traffic controllers? And limo drivers? and….
August 25th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Don’t complicate the issue, Kermit. Do want to hand over fistfuls of taxpayer money to your rich buddies who are are destroying the Earth, or do you want to feed starving children? That’s it. Those are your choices.
August 25th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Wait: can we do both? I like my rich buddies, and I want to feed starving children. Do I have to choose between the two?
August 25th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
I love lamb chops!
August 25th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Yes, Troy, you can only have one or the other. Letting any person or any corporation keep their money is the same as starving and kicking helpless little children.
Pennsylvania, BTW, is 12th in the country in per-pupil spending.
PA public school graduates have lower than average SAT scores.
Obviously, the people of Pennsylvania need to spend more money on public schools.
August 25th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Maybe we could feed starving children to your rich buddies, Troy! That would solve two problems.
August 25th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Mitch, you claim to be such a country-bred boy from NoDak, I’m SHOCKED that the obvious objections to grazing sheep on school property did not occur to you – it occurred to me, and I grew up a relative city slicker.
The first concern that occurred to me was the risk of zoonotic diseases – diseases people contract from animals or are common to multiple species.
In the case of sheep, some of them are particularly risky for kids and for pregnant women (who may have kids who are school age). Scrapie, club lamb fungus (a kind of ringworm), soremouth/orf, clamydia, campylobacter, toxoplasmosis, (http://www.sheep101.info/zoonoses.html ) and of course the range of parasites, including tapeworm. Further, kids are not safe around sheep; they can be risky to handle, and they spook and do stupid things – especially rams.
How are these sheep to be contained? What are the risks they will either damage other landscaping than the lawn (they do that), or that they might escape the school yard, either damaging other property, or causing a car accident in adjoining thoroughfares, etc. Can you guarantee that no loose dogs will create a crisis with sheep, just as an example? Herding skills developed out of the instinctive desire of dogs to chase prey; and sheep are in the same attractive chase group as deer.
Do the sheep go somewhere every night? If so, then loading and unloading presents unique escape exposure. If not, what kind of shelter would the school be obligated to provide for the sheep – calf ‘huts’ are commonly used, but they will destroy any grass over which they are placed. How will they be watered?
Llamas might offer a slightly shorter list of objections; they can be tethered by halters, they have very dry ‘poo’ and only eliminate where there is a piece of their poo placed; further, their poo is considered extremely valuable fertilizer. They are so reliable in this behavior that I know people who carry them around in the back of their minivans like dogs. They are not afraid of prey animals, including dogs……but if they feel they are being attacked, they can and will stamp them into a smear of guts and goo. Some can be quite well socialized, if you can find some that are petting zoo socialized around children, but that would still entail having a human supervizing them at all times. But goats would be worse. Ditto using any of these animals on any city property other than schools, although a few municipalities have made limited use of goats for very specific and difficult kinds of brush removal, on a short term basis.
I can’t think of ANY use of sheep, or other grazing animals, which would not present far greater and far more costly liabilities, risks and hazards than the potential savings would provide. Unfortunately, articles like what you read for this never fairly or objectively present the downsides, and sadly, you have perpetuated that false line of thinking as an inaccurate criticism.
August 25th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
I actually agree with you re: using sheep as lawn mowers, Dog Gone.
Animals get sick, especially animals that have been bred to accentuate certain attributes that humans find desirable. Animals have waste products that people should not be exposed to.
The other day I was with a friend driving through the Saddle area of the Big Island. My friend got a little upset when he saw a herd of shaggy-looking sheep off to the side of the road. I didn’t know it, but apparently some sheep bred for wool bearing have to be sheared regularly or their health suffers.
My friend is from new Zealand, if you hadn’t guessed :). I think they are born knowing about sheep husbandry down there.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:27 pm
must… resist… softball…
August 25th, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Mitch, don’t let Dog Gone and Terry pull the wool over your eyes. With a little bit more spin, you could weave a great story. Just ram it on home! Ewe know what I mean?
August 25th, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Surely, Ben, you are not thinking about the phrase “sheep husbandry”?
The best punchline I’ve heard to an Ozzie, Kiwi joke is:
“Bugger off, I’m not shearin’ this with anyone!”
I don’t get it.
August 25th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Sigh…It’s been a long day.