On November 4th and 5th,  an innocent sheep will be humanely slaughtered at Wild Abundance, a Barnardsville school located near Asheville, North Carolina.   The school claims to teach skills for self-sufficiency and interdependence to empower people.

A live 100 pound sheep will be “thanked for its life and then have a knife plunged into him, killing him by slitting his throat as part of a weekend class, “Cycles of Life: Humane Slaughtering and Butchering Class.”    The goal is to slaughter and butcher a sheep (an older lamb) in a sacred way, skin it, butcher the meat, cure it and use the entirety of the animal.    Included is a demonstration of sausage making.

photo/Wild Abundance

In addition to learning ethical slaughtering, skinning, butchering and charcuterie, uses of other body parts such as hide and bones for tool making and leather making will be discussed.   The techniques that will be applicable to butchering other animals like deer and goats, according to their website.

photo/Wild Abundance

It is a hands-on humane slaughter and butchery class.   The director, Natalie Bogwalker,  states the class is brutal for some.  She said one person went fully vegan after taking the class.

Bogwalker has no plans on canceling the class despite receiving threats of bodily harm and even death.  “(There are) a lot of people hoping we die a painful death, wishing people would slit our throats, and saying that we’re sick and demented,” said Bogwalker, director of Wild Abundance. “I try to keep a good attitude about it, but it’s pretty challenging.”

Protesters started a petition to close the school but to no avail.

The upfront nature of the class is part of the point, Bogwalker added. “One of the reasons we offer the class is so people can really and truly understand the repercussions of their choices to eat meat and take responsibility for it.”

A release from the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which circulates statements from often-anonymous animal rights groups, earlier this month expressed outrage over the class.

“Innocent sheep will be coldly and cruelly murdered November 4th by two women who apparently are unfamiliar with the term oxymoron,” the unsigned release said.

The release also urged other activists to “register disgust and outrage with the perpetrators of this senseless, needless and bloody violence,” publishing contact information for Bogwalker and others involved with the class.

A petition on Care2 Petitions calls for the school to be shut down.

Will Hazlitt, a spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, said animal rights activists think there’s no such thing as responsible meat eating, and labeled the class an “abhorrent activity.” He also defended the right of some activists to threaten violence on the teachers.

“We sympathize deeply with the people who are extremely upset about this and their deep-seated emotions in this regard, and we have no sympathy for the people who are cruelly murdering this sheep,” he said, adding that any efforts to stop the class are “worthy and laudable.”  “Different groups go about things in different ways.”

I don’t agree with this class but I find suggesting violence by activists against the teachers just as bad as the “humane slaughter.”   …..Tina Evangelista-Eppenstein

Tina Evangelista-Eppenstein is a television talk show host, speaker, writer and is an unabashed  animal advocate.   Her love for animals and quest for the hard truth is what drives her passion for all things animals.   She hosts the show,  ” A Close-Up Look at Animal Welfare Issues.”    She adores her once-abused tripawd, Brody.   If you’d like Tina to talk to your group or have a story, please email her at tevangelistaepp@yahoo.com.   Like https://www.facebook.com/ACloseUpLookAtAnimalWelfareIssues and check out AnimalWelfareIssues.com for all the tv shows, articles,  and podcasts you may have missed!