How long do sheep live? As any shepherd will tell you, nobody knows. Why not? Because the woolly things never live long enough for us to find out. They are all converted to shanks and cutlets well before they have had time to rue their past mistakes. Even those that do survive long enough to develop muscles that might challenge our delicate Western gnashers end up as meat of a sort: they are cleverly re-presented as the elephant legs from which our kebabs are cut on the way back from the pub, long after our discernment has been disabled.
Why does this matter anyway? Well, our five elderly sheep, at least one of whom needs, but is not yet getting, glucosamine (consider her stiff but organic), have recently suffered …