Sheep have been selectively bred for thousands of years to produce as much wool as possible. Now sheep can grow a hundred pounds of wool on their bodies. If left alone they can die of heat stroke, their wool will become dirty, growing brown and green residue. Actually, sheep still grow brown and green residue while living on dirty wool farms.
So if a sheep is being kept in an animal sanctuary, we do have a duty to shave them from time to time.
Sheep were not like this back when they lived in the wild. If their ancestors could grow enough hair to cause heat stroke after a few years, they would have died out long before we could have ever domesticated them.
With other industries, it is easy to show that the animals are mistreated. 99 percent of farm animals are raised on Factory Farms. Animals are kept in dirty, painful conditions to keep up consumer demand. We have a growing population of eight billion people. The conditions are so horrible that up to a hundred percent of the workforce quits, so workers are new and inexperienced.
As long as we are killing animals for food, or view their bodies as factories for milk or eggs, we will always cut corners to save money. Most importantly of all, if we are holding animals captive and making an item from their body into a commodity, there is always the risk that the animal will be exploited; even in the best case scenario, and we are far from the best case scenario.
With wool, it is harder to recognize this. Even those inclined towards animal rights often believe that the wool industry is just a haircut for sheep. This is mostly because people don’t see just how brutal this industry is.
Creating wool is not just a haircut. Sheep, and creatures like alpacas, and llamas are often put on stretchers, pinned down, or have their necks stepped on. Alpacas and llamas often scream or squirm around in terror while being handled. After we shave them, their skin is often cut and bleeding. Groups that produce wool need to create as much of it as possible in order to keep up with consumer demand. Thus workers have no choice but to shave the sheep as quickly as possible. The workers often cut themselves. Risk of injury is higher in the wool industry than anywhere else.
Companies have no incentive to treat the sheep gently. In fact they are incentivized to do the opposite. If they don’t create wool as quickly as possible, their competitors will. Sheep are often starved of food and water before shaving day so that they are too exhausted to resist while they’re handled.
Compared to other animals, sheep are less crammed together. But there are still many animals per square foot of space, and conditions are filthy. Most places keep 1,000 sheep per building. But the top 0.1 percent of farms have twenty percent of The United State’s sheep. These places keep 100,000 sheep per building.
Their fur becomes matted with dirt and flies; growing mold and fungus, and they become susceptible to fly strike, a skin infection caused by maggots. To prevent this, workers cut off large portions of skin from the animals backside, painkillers aren’t used. The tails of sheep are either cut off, or removed by tying a rubber band around it and waiting for it to rot off. This is to prevent feces from accumulating around the tail, but this wouldn’t be necessary if sheep weren’t crammed into such dirty areas in the first place. Removing the tail increases the risk of rectal prolapse. A similar method is often used for castration. The scrotum is either cut open, and the cord between the testicles are torn, or a rubber band is tied around the scrotum and left on for several weeks until the testicles rot and fall off. All of these things are done with no painkillers. For wool, castrated males are preferred over their uncastrated counterparts. Wool, meat and dairy have been efficiently tied together. Baby sheep don’t drink their mother’s milk while dairy sheep are crammed into spaces too small to turn around. The dairy sheep are milked so much they get an infection known as mastitis in their udders, which leads to bacteria in milk. Some baby sheep are killed to become lamb. The remainder are raised for their wool until they become older. When sheep get older, their bodies produce less wool, which is less profitable, and the spent sheep are slaughtered to become mutton. They’re replaced by younger sheep.
Goats are only shaven twice a year, but this is because they grow less fur. They’re still pinned down, screaming, terrified, resisting. The workers still accidentally cut the animals and themselves. The animals are still subject to typical abuses. They are, however, kept in smaller numbers. This is because they’re susceptible to parasites.
Goat fur is known as cashmere, the majority of cashmere comes from the cold mountains of Mongolia and China. The herd of goats are kept there, and have to be shaved during the winter in order to make a profit. This causes many of the animals to freeze to death.
Like the others, they are castrated, either by cutting and tearing, or using a rubber band. They also have their horns permanently burned out with a hot iron. No painkillers are used for either procedure. Goats are supposed to have their horns fall off and grow back every year. When they are burned out, they don’t grow back. This is to make it harder for the goats to resist while they’re being shaven. This process is like if a tooth or fingernail were forcibly removed and then the skin beneath were burned, except if these body parts were a thousand times bigger and attached to your skull. No painkiller is used.
Factory Farming creates a lot of pollution. Whether it’s by tanning leather and then dumping pollutants into the air, breeding disease, or dumping untreated hog waste into our water. They over-breed animals to keep up with consumer demand. This uses up land, food, and water which could be used to feed humans. Combined with pollutants such as microplastics and detergent, these things contribute to the impending climate crisis. The industry exploits their workers. It abuses millions of animals.
Getting people to quit eating meat, or to start boycotting animal products like milk or eggs is difficult. Refusing to buy wool is not. There are so many better alternate materials. This helps to combat the Factory Farming industry because it chips away at their profits. They don’t need love, they need money. Perhaps there are a myriad of political issues you are concerned about, but feel like there is nothing you can do about them. This would be a great place to start.
It may seem insignificant, but small things lead to bigger things. Our leaders don’t act like something is an emergency until we do. This is why individual action is important. Collective action will eventually bring attention to the important issues.
Merely being aware of the issue is important in and of itself. Many people don’t know what the wool industry is like. You can help by telling someone, or even sharing this article.
You don’t have to dump all of your wool clothing, or change everything overnight. Changing your wardrobe takes a lot of thought, and people lead busy lives. You can, however, avoid buying wool clothing in the future. There are great alternatives such as cotton and polyester, which are cheaper, less scratchy, and better for everyone around you. If you decide that you want to fully participate in the boycott, you can start donating the clothes to people who really need it. The wool clothing already exists. Buying more wool increases demand, but the wool clothing you already own has already been paid for. The point isn’t to be completely morally pure. Rather, a boycott of wool is more effective when your wardrobe doesn’t contain it anymore. If not wearing wool becomes a trend, people will notice. In the meantime you can avoid wasting the clothing by donating it to the poor, thrift shops, or shelters for domestic violence and the homeless.
Similarly, when people ditch their fur coats, they can be donated to the poor or to people in impoverished countries around the world.
Anyways, it’s just a thought, I hope I gave everyone something interesting to think about. Have a good day.