The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/25/tyneshide_sheep_romp/

Gay sheep romp turns Tyneside blue

Farmer unaware of ovine boy-on-boy

By Lester Haines

Posted in Bootnotes, 25th September 2008 08:02 GMT

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A North Tyneside farmer is evidently unaware of the extensive research which has been dedicated to probing the delicate matter of ovine homosexuality (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/08/inside_the_mind/), and has dismissed clear evidence of his flock indulging in boy-on-boy as a simple bit of rough and tumble

The rams in question, in Dudley, near Cramlington, had been marked with a fetching blue dye which "gets transferred to a ewe during intercourse so the farmer can tell which female could be pregnant", as the Beeb puts it.

However, while the ewes do indeed show a tinge of blueness, all of the rams ended up covered from snout to dags in ultramarine. Their owner, who wisely "did not want to be named", offered: "They get a bit bored before they get let out and start fighting with each other. That's how they start covering each other in blue dye, while the ewes just get a bit of blue on their backs."

He concluded: "If you look closely, the all-blue ones are the daddies."

Hmmm. A likely story. The BBC has a nice snap of some all-blue daddies and a lone, largely unmolested ewe here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/7633731.stm). ®