11/07/2024
Please share : this isn’t our post it’s been copied from elsewhere but it’s an important one for us all to remember!
I found some flowers against my fence today.
I appreciate that things go wrong in life, I have certainly had more than my fair share of things going wrong!
However, as much as I appreciate, sympathise, empathise and understand the feelings that make people want to commemorate when things go wrong, sometimes, a little forethought should be given to the actions taken.
Flowers look lovely, but when they are put against a fence, they attract animals that are kept within that fence. Many flowers are poisonous to things like horses, sheep, cattle, etc. So, as much as they look nice, they are potentially lethal to animals.
But then,. there are those folks who take failing to think a tad further. These are the people who, in their grief, fail to realise that many flowers are harmful to grazing animals, yet leave the flowers in a plastic wrap or waxed paper or a plastic or even metal tie. In a few cases, I have seen flowers left with LEDs with either a battery or a small solar panel so that a light shines when it's dark. Again, beautiful, but deadly to animals.
And then there are those who miss all of that, not only doing most or all of the above, but also stick, tie, tape, wire, other plastic flowers, sometimes with a metal spike to try to keep them in place, placed on or very near a fence that is there to keep the enclosed animals and people apart.
Whoever left the beautiful flowers on my fence, they were plastic, tied with string, and with a metal spike in the bunch on the ground.
Just so that we understand each other. I truly appreciate the sentiment and I know how it feels when things go wrong in our lives, but please, don't leave potentially poisonous flowers where animals can get to them, please don't don't leave plants or flowers in their plastic/paper/other wrappings. Please don't put flowers or plants, tied to a fence or post with anything that an animal could get to and eat. Please don't leave fake or plastic flowers or plants where animals can get to them. Please don't leave metal or plastic spikes where animals can get to them and please, don't leave lights, batteries, solar panels or anything else that could be even unhealthy for an animal to eat.
If you want to leave some kind of memorial, please come and have a chat with us. Most land owners will be happy to consider you putting some nice flowers or plants somewhere safe.
I'd even go so far as letting you build some kind of organic shrine if that's what you want to do. By which I mean something like a small wooden notice or mini shed or something. But please understand that if farmers find anything that might harm our livestock, we are likely to remove them, regardless of the reason why they were placed.
If farmers have their animals killed by memorial things, it's not good for anyone. If someone looses their horses or other animals, their owners are going to be just as distraught as the person who left the commemorations.
