Lameness is the leading welfare problem in UK sheep farming, causing chronic pain in millions of sheep annually yet responding well to prompt, appropriate treatment.
Sheep lameness is a welfare problem on a vast scale in UK farming - with 15-20 million sheep in the national flock and 5-8% lame at any time, this represents hundreds of thousands of sheep in chronic pain simultaneously. The pain of lameness is genuine and measurable: lame sheep show grimace scale pain indicators, reduce grazing time, lose body condition, and have impaired reproduction. The distressing aspect of sheep lameness welfare is that the most common cause is readily treatable with antibiotics and footbathing when caught early. However, the culture of sheep farming has historically accepted lameness as inevitable, delaying treatment and normalizing suffering. This cultural change is achievable - farms that implement the SCOPS plan achieve dramatically lower lameness prevalence.