Sheep are about the most skittish of farm animals and I felt like the constant flow of their version of adrenalin through their veins would make their meat more gamy. I have no science to back that up but I had no trouble selling what I didn't use for myself. And to this day, it was the most mild lamb I've eaten.
I don't know about the constant adrenaline, but that is definitely true for an animal you are about to butcher. It's the main reason (other than just ethics) that you never want to chase an animal before it's killed, because the adrenaline will impart its flavor to the meat, and to a western palate at least, that's not a flavor you want.
That's actually a little disturbing on a couple of levels, and apparently we define love differently. Only human animals are people, and some of them I have doubts about. I'll just say that I agree quite a lot with Thomas Aquinas when it comes to animals and their treatment rather than get into the philosophy itself.
I tend to use the word "people" like John Muir did, to refer to anything alive. Muir referred to animals, plants, and humans as "people", and species of animals and plants, along with different civilizations or tribes, as "peoples". I have been known to refer to even beneficial bacteria as "guys".
It's a little romantic in phraseology, I'm willing to admit, but I always find Muir's writing inspiring, and it's something I picked up from him. I love animals and nature and always have, and I like how the language reminds me that animals (and plants, fungi, etc.) are all individuals engaged in their own private important ecological business, sort of like humans in society (ideally, anyway). But my point wasn't that animals and humans are identical and equal, only that our meat animals are treated identically and equally to our other animals and get no less attention or care, either physically or emotionally. That being said, it's mostly the goats I'm referring to on our farm. We don't name our meat rabbits, except our breeders. Since we can't really tell them apart and their time to maturity is so short, it's not really possible to form a relationship with them as individuals.
My dad's last bull was named Sir Loin but the cows didn't really have names, they were just serfs of the turf.
Hahaha! That's the best name for bull I've ever heard!