Tag: Sheep

The Special Test That Helps One Company Identify Gay Sheep

Queer social networking platform, Grindr, recently debuted a tongue-in-cheek fashion show titled “I Wool Survive,” featuring a 37-piece knitwear collection made entirely from the wool of gay rams—as in homosexual male sheep.

That’s right—as it turns out, 1 in 12 sheep are considered gay or “male-oriented.” And those sheep—and any rams that don’t fulfill their procreating duties within livestock operations—are often sent to the slaughterhouse and sold as meat products.

Sheep operations earn money from three main products: milk, fiber (wool) and meat; because meat drives the most revenue, non-breeding rams are typically routed into the meat supply chain, said Dr. Whit Stewart, associate professor and Extension Sheep Specialist at the University of Wyoming.

Inspired by the doomed fate of non-breeding rams, Michael Stücke, a shepherd located in Germany, created the world’s first “gay sheep” flock and partnered with his friend Nadia Leytes, client strategy director at the German ad agency Serviceplan, to co-found Rainbow Wool. The German non-profit uses yarn from Stücke’s flock to produce fashion pieces, generating a creative revenue stream that supports the farm and LGBTQ charities worldwide. Customers can even sponsor their own “gay ram” through Rainbow Wool’s website.

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Originally starting with just three sheep, Stücke, a member of the Gayfarmer Association, now cares for more than 500 on his Löhne, Germany-based farm, including 35 “male-oriented” rams. As sponsorships have grown, so has the farm’s capacity to expand its flock, opening the door to even more creative possibilities for Rainbow Wool.

But identifying male-oriented rams is rarely done, Dr. Stewart said, because it requires behavioral observation that isn’t realistic in large commercial operations.

Rainbow Wool says its breeders employ a “pen test” to identify “male-oriented” rams: “If a ram repeatedly mounts other males, he’s moved into a pen with only females. If he shows interest in them, he’s sold as a regular breeding ram. If he ignores the females and continues to prefer males, he’s considered commercially ‘not useful’ and is often sent to slaughter,” a company representative said.

But Dr. Stewart noted that such behavior is “not exclusive to males with same-sex sexual preference, nor is it considered a reliable way to categorize rams.” Mounting can also reflect social hierarchy, long term absence of ewes, or excitement during breeding season.

In this case the “gay ram” label is being applied broadly as it may include sheep with low libido, infertility, or other reproductive issues rather than simply a same-sex preference—”a trait that is not straightforward to define scientifically.”

While rams may produce slightly more fleece because of their body size, fiber quality depends on genetics, nutrition and environment. “There is no special or unique wool attribute associated with rams that would change what is already commercially available,” he said.

Since one ram can breed 30 to 100 ewes, keeping non-breeding males is economically impractical and can even create welfare issues as rams housed together can be aggressive and more difficult to manage. But in a larger industrial wool standpoint–”a small refuge population, regardless of the narrative around it, would not change global or regional wool markets,” he said.

“From a non-sensational, scientific perspective, it would be easy for substandard rams to be grouped into a marketing category like this. Dr. Stewart said. “In an era when so few people are directly connected to how their food and fiber are produced, creative marketing opportunities do exist. ”

That’s what Grindr thought too.

In mid-2024, Leytes, the marketer from Germany, reached out to Grindr, which has over 15 million users worldwide, for its global footprint and visibility in the community. The collaboration sparked what SJ Jenkins, Head of Creative Brand Initiatives at Grindr, called a “crazy and fantastic creative journey,”

Grindr executives knew the collaboration had to be big, Jenkins said, leading them to enlist powerhouse fashion designer Michael Schmidt, known for his work with Chrome Hearts and queer icons like Cher and Tina Turner. Schmidt and Suss Cousins, author of Hollywood Knits, hand-knit each piece, inspired by 37 gay archetypes including firefighters, sailors, and the rockstar.

After debuting in New York City, the fashion show quickly drew headlines and social-media attention, thrusting Rainbow Wool’s story into the spotlight.

“It was powerful to celebrate a bit of gay history, celebrate what people are into, and to do it on such a profound global stage,” Jenkins said.

Tristan Pineiro, senior vice president for brand marketing and communications of Grindr, gave an impassioned speech that opened the show last week saying “The sheep are a metaphor for members of the gay community, really often misunderstood, discarded and thought of as not worth it. I think this stands for something so much bigger.”

Grindr, under Pineiro’s direction, has been on a mission to shake off “dusty and outdated perceptions of Grindr as just a hook up app”, and Grindr x Rainbow Wool was the opportunity to make that statement, Jenkins said.

“Yes, we can hook you up with a connection, but we can also hook you up with healthcare and HIV testing kits, we can hook you up with a book club, we can hook you up with in-app content from Christina Aguilera that you can’t get anywhere else, and now we can hook you up with the opportunity to adopt a gay sheep in Germany,” Jenkins, who adopted her very own sheep named ‘Marvin Gay’ said.

Via a pop up prompt and Grindr grid takeover, users can sponsor a gay sheep at the Rainbow Wool farm. All transactions are via Rainbow Wool and status of sheep can be monitored via the Rainbow Wool website, this feature will be live in the app for one week.

Grindr will be auctioning off the 37-piece collection with the proceeds benefitting global LGBTQ+ organizations, leading up to pride in 2026.

The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

Victoria Salves

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November 26, 2025
Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Creating Massive Franken-Sheep With Cloned Animal Parts

An 80-year-old man in Montana pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony wildlife crimes involving his plan to let paying customers hunt sheep on private ranches. But these weren’t just any old sheep. They were “massive hybrid sheep” created by illegally importing animal parts from central Asia, cloning the sheep, and then breeding an enormous hybrid species.

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Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 80, owns and operates the 215-acre “alternative livestock” ranch in Vaughn, Montana where he started this operation in 2013, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Alternative livestock includes hybrids of mountain sheep, mountain goats, and other large mammals which are often used for trophy hunting by wealthy people.

An unnamed accomplice of Schubart kicked off the decade-long scheme by illegally bringing biological tissue from a Marco Polo sheep, the largest sheep in the world, from Kyrgyzstan into the U.S. in 2013, according to prosecutors.

How big are these sheep? An average male can weigh over 300 pounds with horns over 5 feet wide, giving them the largest sheep horns on the planet. The sheep are endangered and protected by both international treaties and U.S. law. Montana also forbids the import of these foreign sheep or their parts in an effort to protect local American sheep from disease.

Once Schubart had smuggled his sheep parts into the U.S., he sent them to an unnamed lab which created 165 cloned embryos, according to the DOJ.

“Schubarth then implanted the embryos in ewes on his ranch, resulting in a single, pure genetic male Marco Polo argali that he named ‘Montana Mountain King’ or MMK,” federal authorities wrote in a press release.

By the time Schubart had his Montana Mountain King he used the cloned sheep’s semen to artificially impregnate female sheep, creating hybrid animals. The goal, as the DOJ explains it, was to create these massive new sheep that could then be used for sports hunting on large ranches. Schubart also forged veterinarian inspection certificates to transport the new hybrid sheep under false pretenses, and sometimes even sold semen from his Montana Mountain King to other breeders in the U.S.

Schubart sent 15 artificially inseminated sheep to Minnesota in 2018 and sold 37 straws of Montana Mountain King’s semen to someone in Texas, according to an indictment filed last month. Schubart also offered to sell an offspring of the Montana Mountain King, dubbed the Montana Black Magic, to someone in Texas for $10,000.

Discussions between Schubart and an unnamed person apparently included what to call this new breed of sheep they were creating. The other person said another co-conspirator had suggested the name “Black Argali,” though noting “we can’t,” presumably because it would give away the fact that these sheep were descended from the argali species.

Schubart pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act, and conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to acquire, transport or sell wildlife in contravention of federal law.

“This was an audacious scheme to create massive hybrid sheep species to be sold and hunted as trophies,” assistant Attorney General Todd Kim from the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a press release.

“In pursuit of this scheme, Schubarth violated international law and the Lacey Act, both of which protect the viability and health of native populations of animals,” Kim continued.

Schubart conspired with at least five other people who are not named in the indictment. Schubarth faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 and is scheduled to be sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Brian M. Morris for the District of Montana in July.

Matt Novak

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March 12, 2024
Stellantis recalls nearly 273,000 Ram trucks because rear view camera image may not show on screen

Stellantis is recalling nearly 273,000 trucks in the U.S. because the radio software can stop the rear view camera image from being displayed

DETROIT — Stellantis is recalling nearly 273,000 trucks in the U.S. because the radio software can stop the rear view camera image from being displayed.

The recall a nnounced Tuesday by U.S. safety regulators covers certain Ram 1500 pickup trucks and some Ram 3500 chassis cabs from the 2022 and 2023 model years. Also covered are 2022 through 2024 Ram 2500 trucks.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a rear view display without an image reduces a driver’s view and increases the risk of a crash.

Dealers will update the radio software at no cost to owners, who will be notified by letter starting Nov. 17.

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October 3, 2023
Princess Diana’s famous black sheep sweater sells for $1.14M, becomes world’s most expensive jumper

A sweater famously worn by Princess Diana in 1981 fetched more $1 million at an online auction as part of Sotheby’s inaugural Fashion Icons sale.

The Warm & Wonderful jumper emblazoned with several white sheep — and one black one — was expected to sell for somewhere between $50,000 and $80,000. But once the bidding started, the garment’s value skyrocketed, thanks to a 15-minute flurry of offers that included 44 proposals, according to TMZ.

The gavel finally fell following a winning bid of $1.143 million — which reportedly makes the sweater the world’s most expensive.

Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Princess Diana’s Black Sheep Sweater is on display on the first day it is in New York at Sotheby’s on Sept. 7, 2023 in New York City.

“In June of 1981, a newly engaged Lady Diana Spencer wore a red sweater dawned with a whimsical black and white sheep motif: one of the first designs by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne of ‘Warm and Wonderful’ knitwear established in 1979,” Sotheby’s advertised on its auction page.

The sweater became an instant sensation after Diana was first photographed donning the vibrant design. A few weeks later, she wrote the designers a letter saying she had damaged the sweater and was requesting a replacement or repair.

According to Sotheby’s, “a new sweater was knitted entirely” and sent to Diana, who in turn wrote the designers a thank-you note. Two years later, she wore that sweater to a polo match with Prince Charles, this time styling it with a white collared blouse and black ribbon tie.

Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Designers Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne pose with their Black Sheep Sweater worn by Lady Diana Spencer on the first day it is displayed at Sotheby’s on Sept. 7, 2023 in New York City.

For more than 40 years, Osborne and Muir “assumed the original [sweater] had been repaired and sent to a customer.” However, earlier this year, Osborne came across the keepsake in an attic. After determining it was, indeed, the original design worn by Diana, the sweater was put on the auction block, accompanied by the pair of letters Diana sent.

Lady Diana Spencer became the Princess of Wales in July 1981 when she married then-Prince Charles. They had two sons before divorcing in 1996. The unconventional “People’s Princess” died a year later in a tragic car crash in France. She was 36.

In September 2022, Charles was officially proclaimed Britain’s new king following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at the age of 96.

Brian Niemietz, Jager Weatherby

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September 15, 2023
Avid search for missing Texas rodeo goat bringing residents of a small rural county together

The search for a rodeo goat that has been missing for more than a week has the residents of a rural South Texas county enthralled as they are using horses, ATVs and even contemplating utilizing a helicopter to find the missing animal

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas — First there was Gone Girl. Now there is Gone Goat.

The search for a rodeo goat that has been missing for more than a week has the residents of a rural South Texas county enthralled as they are using horses, ATVs and even contemplating utilizing a helicopter to find the missing animal.

Local businesses have donated nearly 90 prizes and gifts worth more than $5,000, including brisket, frescoes and salon service, as a reward for the person who finds the goat.

“This has just gotten bigger than we ever dreamed. Our county is a really small county, about 20,000 population and a mostly agriculture, farming and ranching community. And we’re very much one big family … So, we’re excited that everybody wants to find our goat,” said Alison Savage, president of the Willacy County Livestock Show and Fair.

Residents, including families, have been scouring cotton and sugar cane fields since the goat escaped from a pen in the county’s rodeo arena near Raymondville on July 15 following a youth rodeo. On Sunday, possible goat tracks were spotted in a cotton field near Lyford, south of Raymondville.

When the goat first went missing, it didn’t have a name. But after a poll on the livestock show’s Facebook page, the goat was named Willy, short for Willacy County, Savage said. While the goat has a name, Savage said officials are not sure if Willy is a boy or a girl.

The livestock show has been posting regular updates on its Facebook page. The search has also been a boon for the livestock show, as residents and businesses have donated hundreds of dollars to make improvements to the nonprofit’s arena and other facilities.

“He’s hiding from us somewhere. But we’re getting closer. We’re going to find him” Savage said.

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July 23, 2023
Bear Grylls goes into the wild with a new batch of celebrities, from Bradley Cooper to Rita Ora

NEW YORK (AP) — For his latest role, Bradley Cooper leapt onto a hovering helicopter, rappelled down a 400-foot cliff and pulled himself across a 100-foot ravine in one of the harshest climates in North America.

His reward wasn’t an Oscar nomination or a big box office hit. It was a hug from adventurist Bear Grylls and some words of encouragement.

“He smashed it,” Grylls says.

Cooper is one of several celebrities — including Benedict Cumberbatch, Cynthia Erivo, Russell Brand, Troy Kotsur, Rita Ora, Daveed Diggs and Tatiana Maslany — who put their survival skills to the test in a new season of Nat Geo’s “Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge,” premiering Sunday.

“I’m really proud of this season. We’ve had incredible guests who pushed the boundaries in terms of terrain and the challenge,” Grylls told The Associated Press. “When there’s real tough weather with fun people, it’s often really compelling TV.”

The series pairs Grylls with a celebrity for 48 hours in a harsh environment. The first day, Grylls teaches key skills — climbing techniques, water-finding tips and fire-setting, among them — and then the guest must do them alone the second day.

Kotsur, who won an Oscar for “CODA,” was tested in the Scottish Highlands, descending 2,500 feet (760 meters) across eight miles (13 kilometers) of harsh terrain and freezing rivers, including a 150-foot (45-meter) rappel down a waterfall. Because Kotsur is deaf, the two men used rope tugs to communicate. Kotsur’s reward: haggis, a Scottish delicacy in which organ meat is put inside a sheep’s stomach and cooked.

Diggs, a city kid, finds himself in the inhospitable Great Basin Desert in Nevada.

“I don’t know how this is going to go and that’s why I’m doing it,” he says. Diggs learns how to use anchor points, track a target and make a signal fire. His dinner is a tarantula.

“It’s not what I was hoping for, I’m not going to lie to you,” Diggs says.

Grylls told the AP the best guests are always those who come with a willingness to go with it, not to look good.

“The wild is so unpredictable and stuff is always happening. You can’t look cool all the time in the wild,” he said.

The show is not just about survival. Grylls’ guests usually open up and show a different side. Ora talks about her ties to Kosovo, Cooper seems unfazed eating mule deer tongue and Cumberbatch reveals stories about his grandfather. Over a campfire, Grylls goes deeper than many TV interviewers.

“It’s as much about the stars and their own personal journeys and struggles and battles as it is about the adventure and the places,” he says. “I think that combination works well because it doesn’t feel like a performance, like a chat show does, where you’re dressed up and made up and you get three minutes.”

Cumberbatch is taken to the Isle of Skye, where his grandfather trained as a submariner. He learns how to use climbing talons and how to tie an Italian hitch knot.

“It’s not the same as doing a stunt on a Marvel film. It’s a lot more real,” Cumberbatch says. His meal is seaweed and limpets — “Definitely al dente,” he jokes — and his bed is a wet field.

Ora arrives at the Valley of Fire in Nevada following a 15,000-foot (4,570-meter) skydive, learns a chimney climb, butchers a dead pigeon, sacrifices her lip balm to make a fire and uses a sock to soak up water. She and Grylls even dance on a rock ledge, casting their shadows tall.

“The wild strips us all bare, doesn’t it?” Grylls told the AP. “It’s like a grape when you squeeze us, you see what we’re made of. And that’s always the appealing part of ‘Running Wild’ — getting to know the real people.”

One commonality among the guests is that viewers will often hear it was the celebrity’s parents who instilled in them a sense of adventure and testing themselves.

“It’s a reminder just how important parenting is,” Grylls said. “Almost invariably when I ask stars, ‘Where does it come from?’ they go, ‘Oh, my dad was amazing when I was really struggling at school.’ Or, ‘My mum was just such inspiration holding down three jobs.’”

“Running Wild with Bear Grylls” is only one of several shows the adventurist is juggling. On TBS this year, he debuted “I Survived Bear Grylls,” a competition series that bridges the survival and game show genres by having regular contestants recreate some of Grylls’ stunts — like digging through poop or drinking urine. Younger fans can also enjoy “You vs. Wild,” an interactive Netflix show that asks viewers to choose how Grylls will make it out of the wilderness alive.

“I’m not going to be doing these shows forever but hopefully having an adventurous spirit and knowing the value of great friends and the power of a never-give-up attitude in the world — hopefully those things will keep going,” the 49-year-old said.

He seems to have tapped into something deep in the human DNA — a need to be able to start a fire, use tools and master the wild. But Grylls thinks it’s more than that.

“I really believe it’s a state of mind. We don’t have to be in the wild to live an adventurous life,” he said. “It’s how we live our life, how we approach our work, our relationships, our dreams, our aspirations, our interactions with people. Are we leaning on the adventure side? Are we always pushing the boundaries, taking a few risks?”

___

Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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July 14, 2023
No kidding: California overtime law threatens use of grazing goats to prevent wildfires

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hundreds of goats munch on long blades of yellow grass on a hillside next to a sprawling townhouse complex. They were hired to clear vegetation that could fuel wildfires as temperatures rise this summer.

These voracious herbivores are in high demand to devour weeds and shrubs that have proliferated across California after a drought-busting winter of heavy rain and snow.

“It’s a huge fuel source. If it was left untamed, it can grow very high. And then when the summer dries everything out, it’s perfect fuel for a fire,” said Jason Poupolo, parks superintendent for the city of West Sacramento, where goats grazed on a recent afternoon.

Targeted grazing is part of California’s strategy to reduce wildfire risk because goats can eat a wide variety of vegetation and graze in steep, rocky terrain that’s hard to access. Backers say they’re an eco-friendly alternative to chemical herbicides or weed-whacking machines that are make noise and pollution.

But new state labor regulations are making it more expensive to provide goat-grazing services, and herding companies say the rules threaten to put them out of business. The changes could raise the monthly salary of herders from about $3,730 to $14,000, according to the California Farm Bureau.

Companies typically put about one herder in charge of 400 goats. Many of the herders in California are from Peru and live in employer-provided trailers near grazing sites. Labor advocates say the state should investigate the working and living conditions of goatherders before making changes to the law, especially since the state is funding goat-grazing to reduce wildfire risk.

California is investing heavily in wildfire prevention after the state was ravaged by several years of destructive flames that scorched millions of acres, destroyed thousands of homes and killed dozens of people. Goats have been used to clear fuels around Lake Oroville, along Highway 101, and near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

“My phone rings off the hook this time of year,” said Tim Arrowsmith, owner of Western Grazers, which is providing grazing services to West Sacramento. “The demand has grown year after year after year.”

His company, based in the Northern California city of Red Bluff, has about 4,000 goats for hire to clear vegetation for government agencies and private landowners across Northern California. Without a fix to the new regulations, “we will be forced to sell these goats to slaughter and to the auction yards, and we’ll be forced out of business and probably file for bankruptcy,” Arrowsmith said.

Companies have historically been allowed to pay goat and sheepherders a monthly minimum salary rather than an hourly minimum wage, because their jobs require them to be on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But legislation signed in 2016 also entitles them to overtime pay. It effectively boosted the herders’ minimum monthly pay from $1,955 in 2019 to $3,730 this year. It’s set to hit $4,381 in 2025, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations.

So far the herding companies, which have sued over the law, have passed along most of the increased labor costs to their customers.

But in January, those labor costs are set to jump sharply again. Goatherders and sheepherders have always followed the same set of labor rules last year. But a state agency has ruled that’s no longer allowed, meaning goatherders would be subject to the same labor laws as other farmworkers.

That would mean goatherders would be entitled to ever higher pay — up to $14,000 a month. Last year a budget trailer bill delayed that pay requirement for one year, but it’s set to take affect on Jan. 1 if nothing is done to change the law.

Goatherding companies say they can’t afford to pay herders that much. They would have to drastically raise their rates, which would make it unaffordable to provide goat grazing services.

“We fully support increasing wages for herders, but $14,000 a month is not realistic. So we need to address that in order to allow these goat-grazing operations to exist,” said Brian Shobe, deputy policy director for the California Climate and Agriculture Network.

The goat-grazing industry is pushing the Legislature to approve legislation that would treat goatherders the same as sheepherders. A bill to do so hasn’t yet received a public hearing.

Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, who heads the California Labor Federation, said goatherders are among the “most vulnerable workers in America” because they are on temporary work visas and can be fired and sent back to their home country anytime. Most of them work in isolation, speak minimal English and don’t have the same rights as Americans or green-card holders.

“We have a responsibility as a public to ensure that every worker who’s working in California is treated with dignity and respect, and that includes these goatherders,” said Gonzalez Fletcher, who sponsored the farmworker overtime bill when she was a state Assemblywoman representing San Diego.

Arrowsmith employs seven goatherders from Peru under the H-2A visa program for temporary farmworkers. He said the herders are paid about $4,000 a month and don’t have to pay for food, housing or phones.

“I can’t pay $14,000 a month to an employee starting Jan. 1. There’s just not enough money. The cities can’t absorb that kind of cost,” Arrowsmith said. “What’s at stake for the public is your house could burn up because we can’t fire-mitigate.”

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May 30, 2023
Greener pastures? 2,500 hopeful sheep cross Idaho highway

It’s not unusual in Idaho to see a herd of sheep bleating as ranchers move them to higher elevation

BOISE, Idaho — Why did 2,500 sheep cross the road? Because the grass was greener on the other side.

In Idaho, it’s not unusual to see ranchers moving a bleating herd of sheep up to higher elevation at this time of year. But the sight of 2,500 wooly beasts trotting across a highway earlier this week brought a crowd about 300 people.

It was the largest turnout that Steve Stuebner, spokesperson for the Idaho Rangeland Resources Commission, has seen in 15 years.

“It’s a novelty. Maybe they’ve never seen anything like that before, but it’s real typical in Idaho,” he told KTVB-TV. “When you’re out in rural parts of Idaho in the spring and summer, or fall, you could run into a cattle drive or a sheep drive.”

Curious onlookers lined the road as the animals sheepishly entered the highway, guided by ranchers and steered by sheepdogs. They traveled up the road a little ways, the fluffy white herd obscuring the yellow-painted centerline amid a chorus of “baas” and the lead ewe’s jangling bell.

Leaving the open road behind, they will journey through the sagebrush-dotted foothills for a few weeks to their summer home in the Boise National Forest.

This trip up to higher elevations is a tradition dating back around 100 years, the Boise-area TV station reported, and having the sheep graze in the forest helps prevent fires and invigorates plant growth.

The ovine spectacle will return when the sheep are brought back down again in the fall.

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April 28, 2023
Israel demolishes parts of West Bank hamlet set for eviction

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has demolished homes, water tanks and olive orchards in two Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank where some residents are at risk of imminent expulsion, residents and activists said Wednesday.

One of the villages whose structures were demolished on Tuesday is part of an arid area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta, which the Israeli military has designated as a live-fire training zone. Some 1,000 residents of the eight hamlets that make up Masafer Yatta are slated for expulsion, an order Israel’s Supreme Court upheld in May after a two-decade legal battle.

According to images shared by local residents and activists, armored vehicles escorted construction equipment to the demolitions in the villages of Ma’in and Shaab al-Butum, which is part of Masafer Yatta.

Guy Butavia, an activist with the Israeli rights group Taayush, said the army razed five homes, animal pens and cisterns, spilling the contents of people’s lives out onto the cold desert.

“They come and demolish your house. It’s winter. It’s cold. What’s next? Where are they going to sleep that night?” he said.

Most residents of the area have remained in place since the ruling, even as Israeli security forces periodically roll in to demolish structures. But they could be forced out at any time.

Local officials and rights group said Israeli defense officials have informed them that they would soon forcibly remove more than 1,000 residents from the area.

“There is a genuine concern that a grave war crime will be committed,” said Roni Pelli, a lawyer working with ACRI.

COGAT, the Israeli defense body that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, declined to comment.

Both villages are in the 60% of the occupied West Bank known as Area C, where the Israeli military exercises full control under interim peace agreements reached with the Palestinians in the 1990s. Palestinian structures built without military permits — which residents say are nearly impossible to obtain — are at risk of demolition.

Tuesday’s demolition comes against the backdrop of a new government in Israel, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where proponents of Israel’s West Bank settlement enterprise hold influential portfolios and are expected to both drive up settlement building and suppress construction for Palestinians in Area C.

The families living in Masafer Yatta say they’ve herded their sheep and goats across the area long before Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.

But Israel says the nomadic Arab Bedouin had no permanent structures when the military declared the area a firing and training zone in the early 1980s. In November 1999, security forces expelled some 700 villagers and destroyed homes and cisterns.

A twenty-year legal battle began the following year that ended in 2022 with the Israeli Supreme Court denying an additional hearing in October over the expulsion.

While previous Israeli governments have for decades demolished homes in the area, the current government is expected to step up demolitions in the area.

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January 4, 2023
Mayfield, Akers lead Rams’ 51-14 blowout of Wilson’s Broncos

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Baker Mayfield threw two touchdown passes to Tyler Higbee, Cam Akers rushed for 118 yards and three more scores, and the Los Angeles Rams routed the Denver Broncos 51-14 Sunday for their second victory since mid-October.

Mayfield went 24 of 28 for 230 yards in another standout performance for his second win in three starts with the Rams (5-10), who produced the best game of their dismal season on Christmas.

Rookie Cobie Durant returned his second interception 85 yards for a touchdown with 4:08 left to cap the Rams’ first 50-point performance under Sean McVay since their famed 54-51 victory over Kansas City in 2018.

For at least one more week, Los Angeles avoided becoming the first defending Super Bowl champion to lose 11 games. Even with the NFL’s 32nd-ranked offense coming in, Los Angeles became just the second team to score 50 points in the NFL this season, joining Dallas earlier this month, and put together a comprehensively dominant performance.

In his Los Angeles debut, Larrell Murchison made 2 1/2 of the Rams’ six sacks of Russell Wilson, who passed for 214 yards with three interceptions for Denver (4-11).

The beleaguered Wilson was not sharp in his return from a one-game absence with a concussion, throwing interceptions to end Denver’s first two drives. The second pick was by Bobby Wagner, who faced his longtime teammate and friend for the first time after spending a full decade together in Seattle.

Wagner also sacked Wilson during the first half, when the Rams improbably racked up 261 of their 388 yards before halftime and eventually scored on their first eight drives against Denver’s above-average defense, already matching their full-game season high in points with their 31-6 halftime lead.

Denver trailed 41-6 before Wilson hit Greg Dulcich for the Broncos’ only touchdown with 8:30 to play.

Akers continued his late-season surge by producing the Rams’ first 100-yard rushing game of the season, while Higbee led the passing attack with 94 yards receiving for an offense missing its top three wideouts due to injury.

The Rams led by double digits less than nine minutes in when Durant picked off Wilson’s second pass and Mayfield hit Higbee for a 9-yard TD three plays later. Higbee became the Rams’ career franchise leader in touchdown catches by a tight end with his 19th score.

Wagner then poached a pass from Wilson across the middle of the field and made a long return, and the Rams scored two snaps later on Akers’ 3-yard run. Los Angeles had scored just one touchdown off a takeaway all season long before doing it twice more in the first quarter.

The Rams’ 17-point first quarter was their highest-scoring opening period since Week 6 of McVay’s first season in 2017. They subsequently scored touchdowns on four consecutive drives for the first time in McVay’s tenure.

Higbee made his second TD catch early in the second quarter after a smooth 75-yard drive by the Rams’ long-struggling offense. Akers then punched it in again 1:06 before halftime for a 31-3 lead.

Ramsey picked off Wilson’s long heave to the end zone on Denver’s opening drive of the second half. The Rams’ pressure on Wilson improbably was led by Murchison, who signed with LA 13 days ago after Tennessee cut him.

INJURIES

Murchison left in the fourth quarter with a neck injury. … Dulcich was ruled out with a hamstring injury late in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT

Broncos: At Chiefs on Sunday.

Rams: “At” Chargers on Sunday.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP—NFL

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December 25, 2022
Arizona farm gives refuge from pain, for man and beast alike

CORNVILLE, Ariz. — The leader has the name of her dead baby spelled out in beads on her left wrist, and standing before her is a mother so grief-choked by her young son’s death that she flips on her side at one point in this creekside yoga class and sobs. In the next row, a woman whose daughter died by suicide goes through the poses next to a man with a tattoo of three little ducks, one for each of the children who was murdered.

Just beyond, in the fields of this sanctuary for the grieving, is a sheep whose babies were snatched by coyotes, a goat saved from slaughter and a horse that was badly mistreated carrying loads at the Grand Canyon.

Soon, the morning fog will lift and the chorus of cicadas will end the quiet. But for a moment, all is still, as if nature has paused to acknowledge this gathering of worldly suffering.

“There’s a comfort in knowing,” says Suzy Elghanayan, the mother whose young son died earlier this year of a seizure, “that we’re all in the same place that we never wanted to be.”

The world turns away from stories like theirs because it’s too hard to imagine burying a child. So mourning people from around the globe journey to this patch of farmland just outside the red rocks of Sedona.

There is no talk at Selah Carefarm of ending the pain of loss, just of building the emotional muscle to handle it.

Here, the names of the dead can be spoken and the agony of loss can be shown. No one turns away.

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Joanne Cacciatore was a mother of three in a customer service job when her baby died during delivery.

Long after she closed the lid to the tiny pink casket, the grief consumed her. She’d sob for hours and withered to 90 lbs. She didn’t want to live. All she thought about was death.

“Every cell in my body aches,” she wrote in her journal a few months after the death in 1994. “I won’t smile as often as my old self. Smiling hurts now. Most everything hurts some days, even breathing.”

Cacciatore became consumed with understanding the abyss of heartache she inhabited. But counseling and bereavement groups were as disappointing as the body of research Cacciatore found on traumatic loss.

So, she set out on twin paths for answers: Enrolling in college for the first time, focusing her studies on grief, and starting a support group and foundation for others like her.

Today, all these years after the death that set her on this journey, those academic and therapeutic pursuits have converged on the vegan farm, which opened five years ago. As plans for Selah took shape, Cacciatore was reminded of the two dogs who stayed by her side even when the depths of her sorrow were too much for many friends. So the farm is home to dozens of animals, many rescued from abuse and neglect, that are central to many visitors’ experience here.

While most who come to Selah take part in counseling sessions, Cacciatore believes visitors’ experiences with the animals can be just as transformative. Across the farm, stories repeat of someone washed over by a wave of grief only to find an animal seem to offer comfort – a donkey nestling its face in a crying woman’s shoulder or a horse pressing its head against a grieving heart.

“There’s a resonance,” Cacciatore says. “There’s a symbiosis,”

The 10-acre swath of valley feels something like a bohemian enclave crossed with a kibbutz. In the day, the sprawling expanse is baked in sun, all the way back to the creek at the farm’s border, where a family of otters comes to play. At night, under star-flecked skies of indigo, paths are lit by lanterns and strings of bulbs glow, and all is quiet but the gentle flow of spring water snaking through irrigation ditches.

It is an oasis, but a constantly changing one, reinvented by each new visitor leaving their imprint.

On one tree, the grieving tie strips of fabric that rain like multicolored tickertape, remnants of their loved one’s favorite shirts and socks and pillowcases. Nearby, little medallions stamped with the names of the dead twinkle in the breeze. And in a grotto beneath an ash tree, the brokenhearted have clipped prayer cards to the branches, left objects including a baseball and a toy truck, and painted dozens of stones memorializing someone gone too soon.

For Andy, “My Twin Forever.” For Monica, “Loved Forever.” For Jade, “Forever One Day Old.”

Memories of the dead are everywhere. The farm’s guest house was made possible by donors, just like everything else here, and names of their lost ones are on everything from benches to butterfly gardens.

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After a few days here, many find the stories of their beloved have become so stitched into the farm’s fabric it makes hallowed ground of earth on which the dead never set foot.

For Liz Castleman, it is a place she has come to feel her son Charlie’s presence even more than home. A rock with a dinosaur painted on it honors him and a wooden bird soars with his name. Strawberries at the farm have even been forever rebranded as Charlieberries in recognition of his favorite fruit.

Few in Castleman’s life can bear to hear about her son anymore, three years after he died before even reaching his third birthday. When she first came to the farm, part of her wondered if Cacciatore might somehow have the power to bring Charlie back. In a way, she did. She’s returned five more times because here, people relish hearing of the whip-smart boy who made friends wherever he went, who’d do anything to earn a laugh, who was so outgoing in class a teacher dubbed him “Mayor of Babytown.”

“All of the old safe spaces are gone. The farm, it really is the one safe space,” says 46-year-old Castleman, whose son died while under anesthesia during an MRI, likely due to an underlying genetic disorder. “There’s something, I don’t know if it’s magical, but you know that anything you say is OK and anything you feel is OK. It’s just a complete bubble from the rest of the world.”

Many who come here have been frustrated by communities and counselors who tell them to move on from their loss. They’ve been pushed to be medicated or plied with platitudes that hurt more than help. Friends tell a grieving mom that God needed an angel or ask a brokenhearted spouse why he’s still wearing his wedding ring. Again and again, they’re told to forget and move on.

Here, though, visitors learn the void will be with them, some way or another, forever.

“I’m picturing my life with my grief always with me and how I’m going to live life with that grief,” says 58-year-old Elghanayan, struggling to imagine her years unfolding without her 20-year-old son Luca, the compassionate, rock-climbing, surfing, piano-playing aspiring scientist. “I have to figure out how to get up and breathe every day and take one step every day and pray my years go by swiftly.”

If it seems counterintuitive that coming to a place where every story is sad could actually uplift, Selah’s adherents point to their own experiences on the farm and the inching progress they’ve made.

Erik Denton, a 35-year-old repeat visitor to Selah, is certain he can’t ever get over the deaths of his three children last year, but he’s functioning again. He does the dishes and makes his bed. He doesn’t hole up alone for days at a time. He’s again able to talk about the children he loves: 3-year-old Joanna, the firecracker who climbed trees and helped friends; 2-year-old Terry, the mischief maker who seemed to think no one was watching; and 6-month-old Sierra, the silly girl who just had begun to ooh and aah.

Denton’s ex-girlfriend, the children’s mother, has been charged in their drownings in a bathtub and sometimes repeating the story or hearing another mourner’s tragedy becomes too much for him. But mostly, Denton feels as if he can connect with people here more than anywhere else.

“Even though we’re surrounded by so much pain, we’re together,” he says.

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A sense of solidarity is inescapable at Selah. Guests eagerly trade stories of their lost loved ones. And when someone is hurting, human or animal, they can count on others being by their side.

This day, Cacciatore is shaken because Shirin, a chocolate brown sheep with a white stripe across her belly, has been growing sicker and can’t be coaxed to eat, not even her favorite cookies.

Shirin was rescued after her two babies were taken by coyotes. Her udders were full for lambs no longer around to feed. She remained so shaken by it all that no one could get close to her for weeks.

As Cacciatore awaits the veterinarian, she and a frequent farm guest, 57-year-old Jill Loforte Carroll, dote on the sheep. Cacciatore tries to coax Shirin to eat some leaves and Loforte Carroll cues a recording of “La Vie en Rose” sung by her daughter Sierra before the quietly observant, shyly funny 21-year-old died by suicide seven years ago.

For a moment, it’s just three mournful moms sharing a patch of field.

When the vet arrives, their fears are confirmed, and as injections to euthanize are given, Cacciatore massages the sheep, repeatedly cooing reassuring words as her tears fall to the dirt below.

“It’s OK, baby girl, it’s OK,” she says. “You’re the prettiest girl.”

By the time the vet looks up with a knowing nod, seven people crouch around Shirin, splayed across the field in such anguished drama it seems fit for a Renaissance painting. On a farm shaped by death, another has arrived, but those who gathered infused it with as much beauty and comfort as they could.

“It’s not our children,” Cacciatore says before burying Shirin beneath a hulking persimmon tree, “but it’s still hard.”

This is Cacciatore’s life now, one she never could have imagined before her own tragedy. She has a Ph.D. and a research professorship at Arizona State University. A book on loss, “Bearing the Unbearable,” was well received. A fiercely loyal following has found solace in her work and her counseling.

“I had a little girl who was born and who died, and it changed the trajectory of my life,” she says. “But I’d give it back in a minute just to have her back.”

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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://twitter.com/sedensky

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October 19, 2022