On October 16th a peculiar herd of sheep appeared on the north end of Schooley’s Mountain, backing up traffic on the road. The origin of these sheep is still in question and no one really knows what exactly went down.

Such confusion leaves many questions such as: where are they from, what were they doing, which day did this occur, did this really happen, and is my pun not obvious enough (no seriously, tell me if its baaaaahd)?

While most of these questions will likely remain unanswered, they bring up some insight into to how rural the big LV truly is. This has not been the first loose animal sighting in Long Valley and odds are it won’t be the last. Over the years, residents have reported seeing loose sheep, horses, goats, cows, chickens, and even one particularly adventurous peacock.

I can personally attest to the these sightings as about a year ago I ran into an escaped horse during cross country practice. Seeing that the horse was almost as startled as I was, I started freakin’ out.

Not wanting to cause any trouble, I “heroically” fled into a nearby barn (which being in Long Valley, was not hard to find) and waited it out. After the event I found out that the horse was a runaway from one of Long Valleys many livestock farms.

Similar stories have been told of people seeing goats on football fields or peacocks in backyards.

Such stories remind us that even in 2014, Long Valley is still a farm town. However, the recent escalation in livestock escapes, makes us question why do these animals want to get out so bad, do we need stricter farmland security legislation, and do we have an Animal Farm-esque uprising on our hands?