Editor:

Your July 3 article "Hog Riled" reported that our only local USDA approved slaughter house will no longer accept hogs, but that's not the only change. It also won't accept sheep unless they have been sheared. Although this sounds catastrophic to sheep ranchers, I believe that in the long run it will force us to breed shedding meat sheep along with the rest of the world such as the British easy care, the Australian and New Zealand composites, the Australian Wiltipol, and the composite American Katahdin, which is now the leader in U.S. sheep registrations. In the U.S., per-capita lamb consumption is only about 0.88 pounds, while in contrast, in Australia and New Zealand it's around 25 pounds. Americans are simply no longer accustomed to lamb and unaware that the lack of lanolin in shedding sheep makes their meat delicious. When you buy local lamb it encourages ranchers to buy new bloodlines. Our West Coast marine climate and pasturage is ideal for sheep.

Genevieve Carlson, Arcata