I have to cover this story, because as I was reading it I was actually eating lamb and I saw it as a sign. It was left over from dinner last night.

So chef Gordon Ramsay asked the Beckhams if his lambs could graze on their land because he felt his garden was too small for them. He’s eventually going to slaughter and cook up the lambs, and PETA is all over that despite the fact that he’s making sure they have a pretty good life and more room while they’re here:

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has been urged to spare the lives of lambs living on David and Victoria Beckham’s English country estate by People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (PETA). The Beckhams gave Ramsay permission to let his lambs graze on the land at their home in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire after he claimed his own London garden was too small.

However, Ramsay failed to notify the couple the lambs weren’t family pets, but future meals at his London eateries.

A spokeswoman for Victoria, adds, “She was more than happy to let the sheep roam around her grounds, but as a devout vegetarian, she will be distraught to learn that they’re going to be killed.”

And PETA hopes his close friend’s distaste over the incident will give him second thoughts, and begin to branch out on vegetarian alternatives.

PETA Europe director Poorva Joshipura says, “People are rallying to spare the lambs Posh grew to love. With soy ‘lamb’ kebabs and marinated mock meats, everyone wins, including the animals.”

This reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Lisa decides to become a vegetarian after she sees the lamb in the petting zoo and imagines it saying Liiiisa, don’t eeeat me. We were at a farm last week and I mentioned to my husband how cute the lambs were and how I kind of felt bad eating lamb, but that didn’t stop me from cooking some up last night. My parents are vegetarians and that’s probably why I’m not. When I was a teenager I had to rebel somehow.

Here’s a clip from that same Simpson’s, the educational film “Meat and You”

There are probably plenty of animal rights groups that aren’t as extreme as PETA and don’t try to save cockroaches and free-roaming lambs who live a pretty good life in the English countryside before they’re cooked up by a world class chef. Fur is cruel and unnecessary, and that’s a cause I agree with. Meat does take up a lot of resources and I can understand the choice to be vegetarian, but it should be a personal one.

Raising livestock is very hard on the environment and uses much more resources to produce than grains and vegetables along with creating a lot of pollution. Animals raised for commercial meat production usually have incredibly cramped, cruel, living conditions. To raise a stink over a few free-range lambs, though, that’s out of hand. I guess that’s how PETA made a name for themselves, though.

It’s news to me that Victoria Beckham is a vegetarian. I thought she was one of those breatharians.

Picture from Victoria’s super-expensive birthday party found at The Grumpiest.