Chris,
In the papers the club put together around this issue ahead of the vote, they mention / remind that in the early 2000s there was a similar vote and the members wanted to remove the livestock then, but for various reasons it was never followed through. I'm not a regular enough visitor to the club to know exactly what the membership feel, but if they wanted to remove the livestock 20 odd years ago, it would surprise me if this recent development was just driven by the greenstaff.
Cheers,
James