Meet Michael Stücke, shepherd of the world's first flock of gay sheep
21 rams on a farm in Löhne, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany have risen to fame through a fashion brand called Rainbow Wool, which produces caps, patches and shoelaces from the wool of the fluffy new celebrities.
What’s more, the profit goes entirely to LGBTQ+ causes.Since the project launched, shepherd Michael Stücke’s phone won’t stand still. “In the last weeks, there hasn’t been a day on which I haven’t given an interview.
The number of enquiries we’re receiving at the moment is bombastic”, the 51-year-old farmer says. A member of the Gayfarmer Network in Germany, Stücke is gay himself and lives on the farm with his husband.The project developed from a conversation he had about homosexual behaviour in sheep with a friend who works for a PR and communications agency.
According to studies, apparently about one in 12 sheep is gay.“Sometimes rams jump at each other trying to mate or entirely reject the females and only show interest in the male conspecifics,” Stücke told GCN. “Our friend asked, ‘What’s happening to those sheep?’ I said they will be slaughtered for meat because they are not suitable for breeding.”As Stücke explains, regulations dictate that there must be one ram per 50 ewes and that ram is expected to sire offspring. “If the ram is gay, he obviously doesn’t do that.” So, like many other male sheep, the gay rams end up at the slaughterhouse.Stücke’s friend wondered if anything could be done to change this and if the rams’ wool could be used for something.
