A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: The hidden cruelties behind the wool industry

Chances are, if you’ve found yourself browsing through the Indie Peace blog,  you’ll agree with me when I say that wearing fur is cruel. Killing animals for the sole purpose of making a winter coat is callous, and well, just plain tacky. But what about shearing animals? Seems relatively harmless, right? Wrong.

So, what’s so bad about shearing sheep for wool? Aren’t farmers actually doing them favor by giving them a much-needed haircut for the summer time?

Maybe it was that way back in the day before the wool industry boomed. Now, most sheep are bred like slaughterhouse chickens, packed like sardines in factory farms and forced to live in their own filth. Many die in their holding pens before even being shorn.

And shearers aren’t interested in the sheep’s feelings. Since their paycheck comes from how much wool they produce, the shearing process is a hasty, often violent, process. To make matters worse, sheep are sheared before they would naturally shed their fur. Many die from exposure to impossibly cold weather. Ever seen Titanic? Dying of hyperthermia isn’t the sweetest way to go.

But worst off all, there’s mulesing. And no, I’m not talking about feeding the sheep crunchy granola, (get it, mulesing, museli? Ok, I’m lame…) I’m talking about literally cutting chunks out of a sheep’s butt, without painkillers or anesthesia. Um, can you say ouch!?

And why is this necessary? Well, because we’ve bred sheep like designer dogs at puppy mills (another issue I won’t get into), they have excess skin folds, so that humans can harvest more of their wool. But these excess skin folds are also hotels for flies and can become easily infested with maggots. If left untreated, meaning, handlers don’t lope off chunks of the sheep’s skin to prevent infestation, sheep are doomed to become worm food. Hmmm…not exactly a “win-win situation” for lamb-chop.

Finally, what happens to a sheep once it stops producing enough wool? Well, if it’s managed to survive the crowded conditions, painful maggot feeding, and butt butchering, we don’t send them to the retirement home for inhumanely treated sheep. We send them to the slaughterhouse, and eat them for dinner.  Go us.

So, do you consider yourself an environmentalist? Gawk at the mere idea of wearing fur? Well, wearing wool isn’t much better. Go ahead, check your closet. Bet you’ll find at least one item made with wool. But hey, I’m not wagging fingers at anyone. I’m guilty too. In fact, if you thought wool was a friendlier choice before like I did, you weren’t entirely wrong. When done humanely, and that’s a big WHEN, wool is actually a great, biodegradable fabric. But since greed, and mass-producing of sickly sheep has taken over the industry, wearing a wool sweater these days isn’t much greener than eating steak for dinner. Consider this: nearly 90% of noxious climate changing green-house gases in New Zealand come from the production of merino wool.

So now that you know, how are you going to keep warm next winter?

Easy. Look for sustainable, eco-friendly fabrics, like hemp and organic cotton (a-hemmm…Indie Peace?). These fabrics will keep you just as warm, seriously, and without the itch.  Plus, you’ll rest assured knowing you didn’t torture Mary’s little lamb in the process.

For more information, go to savethesheep.com, or at PETA.org. Pink urges to boycott Australian wool.