Why the Shepherd Hobbles the Sheep

This reminded me of something Ann Barnhardt wrote a while back about that "good shepherd" image, which I thought folks here might appreciate. It's unfortunate that Ann's site has no archive. I archive her frequently, but I don't get everything, and apparently hadn't saved this one. Fortunately, I found it had been reprinted here.

"Long story short: When a shepherd would go out and search for a lost sheep that had wandered off, when he found the lost lamb, he would BREAK OR DISLOCATE ITS LEG, and then carry it back to the flock on his shoulders. This husbandry technique is called "hobbling." We have all seen that image. Yeah. He wasn't carrying it because it was fun. He was carrying the lamb because he had intentionally crippled it.…"

Not cruel. Kind:

Why? … First, to keep it from wandering off again. Second, in order to train it to stay with the flock. While the leg was mending, the lamb would NOT wander off and learned to stay with the fold. This was done not just to protect the straying lamb, but also to protect the rest of the flock. Sheep are very gregarious. If one is heady and heads off on some tangent, the rest of the flock might go after it instead of staying with the shepherd.

You know, KINDA LIKE PEOPLE.

I hadn't known that. I imagine that old radio hound saying, "and now you know… the rest of the story."