Gay sheep rescued from grim fate after refusing to mate with females live out their lives in peace on German farm
One man in Löhne, Germany, is making a difference with his flock of gay sheep.
The nonprofit Rainbow Wool was founded in 2023 by Michael Stücke, a farmer who has been tending to sheep since 1995. Coming from a background in agriculture, Stücke, 52, was approached by his friend, Nadia Leytes, who works in advertising, and translated Stücke's conversation for PEOPLE.
Leytes says after learning of the prevalence of homosexuality in sheep, she asked what happened to those male sheep who refused to mate with females. As a ram that won't mate with a ewe isn't “profitable,” as Stücke puts it, he explains to PEOPLE that “they're getting sent to slaughter.”
It's estimated that around 8% of rams exhibit exclusively homosexual behavior. As someone who's from Russia, where it's still illegal to be gay, Leytes, 39, says she was outraged by this and eventually proposed to Stücke the idea that would become Rainbow Wool. From there, he says it became a “passion project,” heralded by him, Leytes and his husband, Johan, whom he met almost two decades prior in 2005.
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