There are two kinds of wool: shorn or pulled. Shorn wool is taken from the animal still alive. Pulled wool is taken from the animal after slaughter. Wool can come from sheep, goats, rabbits or even Tibetan antelopes. It may be called wool, mohair, cashmere, pashmina, shahtoosh or angora. No matter its name, it almost certainly means suffering for the animal it came from. Sheep Many people believe that shearing sheep causes little or no discomfort to the animals, and that the wool is simply shaved from the outside of the animal, helping animals who might otherwise be burdened with too much wool during the summer months. This is far from the truth. Without human interference, sheep grow just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes. The fleece provides effective insulation against both cold and heat and naturally sheds. Wool was once obtained by plucking it from the sheep during molting seasons. But to avoid loss of wool, shearing is now practiced each spring, after lambing, just before they would their winter coats. Sheared sheep can freeze as the heat is drawn from their bodies if shearing is done too early, or in some cases severe sunburn. To be sheared, sheep are thrown on their backs and restrained with tight clamps on their faces while a razor is run over their bodies. Whether sheared manually or mechanically, cuts in the skin are very common. Careless shearing can injure teats, genitalia, other appendages, and ligaments. Death can even occur when the shearer is rough and twists the animal into an organ-damaging position, when the health of the sheep is already poor, or because being stripped of hair is a shock to their system. Mutilations are also common procedures. Within weeks of birth, lambs’ ears are hole-punched, their tails are chopped off, and the males are castrated without anesthetics. Male lambs are castrated when between 2 and 8 weeks old, with a rubber ring used to cut off blood supply—one of the most painful methods of castration possible (1). Older sheep who do not produce enough wool are sent to slaughter, often tightly packed in trucks over long-distance trips without food or water (2). In the slaughterhouses, animals often regain consciousness while being dismembered (2). In addition, other animal species are killed to protect sheep (for instance coyotes and wolves in North America and Europe, respectively) and to stop them from eating the sheep's food (kangaroos in Australia) (3). Merino Wool Australia, with more than 100 million sheep, produces 30 percent of all wool used worldwide. Merinos, the most commonly raised sheep, are specifically bred to have wrinkly skin so that they yield more wool. This unnatural overload of wool causes some animals to die of heat exhaustion during hot months. In addition, the wrinkles collect urine and moisture, attracting flies who lay eggs in the folds of skin (fly strike). The hatched maggots eat away at the live sheep. To prevent this from happening, ranchers cut large chunks of flesh off lambs' rump without anesthetic. This very painful procedure, called “mulesing”, is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that won’t harbor fly eggs. The bloody wounds often get fly strike before they heal (4). When sheep age and stop producing enough wool, they are sold for slaughter. Every year, about 6.5 million sheep travel often vast distances over land until they reach the feedlots where they are held before being loaded onto ships to the Middle East and North Africa (5). Many sheep, stressed, ill, or wounded from the journey and faced with intensive crowding, disease, and strange food, die in the holding pens. The surviving sheep endure weeks or months-long trips on overcrowded, disease-ridden ships with little access to food or water. Younger animals or babies born en route are often trampled to death. Many die along the way and those that make it are thrown into the backs of trucks and cars to later have their throats slit while fully conscious (see video at: http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=save_the_sheep). Cashmere Cashmere (or Tibetan pashmina) is taken from cashmere goats. Because of industry requirements for a certain fur “quality”, goats with “defects” in their coats (50 to 80 per cent of the young goats) are typically killed before two years of age. Like with sheep, goats are often bred in vast numbers, with minimal care. Mutilations and early deaths are common, and survivors are eventually sent to slaughter. Angora Angora wool comes from angora rabbits. These animals, who are extremely clean by nature, are kept in tiny, filthy cages, surrounded by their own waste. Having very delicate footpads, they often develop ulcerated feet due to the wire floors, causing them to live in excruciating pain. They never get the chance to dig, jump or play. Because male angoras have only 75 to 80 percent of the wool yield of females, they are often routinely killed at birth. For shearing, the rabbits are typically strapped onto a board. They struggle and kick vigorously as a result, which leads in the animals getting cut by the clippers. Shahtoosh Shahtoosh, used to make “fashionable” shawls, is made from Chiru, an endangered Tibetan antelope. Chiru cannot be domesticated and must be killed in order to obtain their wool. Illegal to sell or possess since 1975, shahtoosh shawls are still sold on the black market, leading to as many as 20,000 Chiru killed every year for their wool. WHAT YOU CAN DO! Buying wool and other animal fibres only supports animal abuse. You can help stop the cruelty by refusing to buy wool, clothes made of wool, and clothes from stores that sell wool. Opt for other fibres. Instead of wool, buy warm clothes made of cotton, cotton flannel, polyester fleece, synthetic shearing, plant-based yarns or soft acrylic. Some good quality, warm synthetic fibres have been created in recent years. For example, Tencel is a breathable, durable, and biodegradable fibre and Polar Tec Wind Pro, with four times the wind resistance of wool, is made primarily of recycled plastic soda bottles! Garments made of these fancy alternatives can be expensive but wool is pretty expensive, too, not to mention harder to care for. Remember also that lanolin is a by-product of wool, and thus not a cruelty-free product.
References: (1) Christine Townend, Pulling the Wool: A New Look at the Australian Wool Industry (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger Pty. Limited, 1985) 23. (2) “Long Distance Transport of Live Farm Animals”, Compassion in World Farming, Jul. 2002. (3) “Commercial Kangaroo Harvest Quotas - 2003”, Environment Australia, 2003. (4) “Agriculture: The Wool Industry,” Australian Bureau of Statistics, 22 Jan. 2002. (5) “Australian Investigates Live Sheep Export Deaths”, Reuters, 3 Sep. 2002 |
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