I'd like to think that this is just a question coming from someone who is uneducated on the subject instead of just a dumb question... but, why do vegans (and maybe also vegetarians) not use wool? The reason I don't understand is because they just shave the hair off the animal, so it doesn't harm them right? If they do something else to them I'd like to know, not that I wear wool in the first place (I'm allergic) but I was just wondering- why?
The Vegan ideology is for humans to not use animals in any way. People are still holding sheep against their will and forcefully take their wool. It is viewed as a form of slavery. I watched or read something several years ago about how sheep are injured all the time from shaving off their wool, so they can be hurt, and it certainly isn't natural.
Inside the Wool Industry Without human interference, sheep grow just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes. The fleece provides effective insulation against both the cold and heat. Wool was once obtained by plucking it from sheep during their molting seasons. Breeding for continuous fleece growth began after the invention of shears.(1) Shearing and Mulesing Equal Sheep Abuse With approximately 100 million sheep, Australia produces 25 percent of the world’s wool.(2) Flocks usually consist of thousands of sheep, making it impossible to give individual attention to their needs; it is considered normal in the Australian wool industry for as many as 6 million sheep to die each season.(3) Because there is so much death and disease in the wool industry, the rational solution is to reduce the number of sheep who are used for their wool in order to maintain them decently. Instead, sheep are bred to bear more lambs in order to offset the deaths. In Australia, the most commonly raised sheep are merinos, who are specifically bred to have wrinkled skin, which means more wool per animal. This unnatural overload of wool causes animals to die of heat exhaustion during hot months, and the wrinkles also collect urine and moisture. Attracted to the moisture, flies lay eggs in the folds of skin, and the hatched maggots can eat the sheep alive. In order to prevent this condition, called “flystrike,” Australian ranchers perform a barbaric operation—mulesing—by carving huge strips of skin and flesh off the backs of unanesthetized lambs’ legs and around their tails. This is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that won’t harbor fly eggs, yet the bloody wounds often get flystrike before they heal. Under the threat of an international boycott of Australian wool products, wool-industry officials have said that they will find an alternative to mulesing and will phase out the practice by 2010.(4) One farmer—who successfully protects his sheep from flystrike by using a combination of fly traps, chemical sprays, breed selection, and grazing management—attributed the industry’s resistance to giving up mulesing to “a bit of old-boys’-club arrogance in a once-grand industry that is now struggling a bit.”(5) Sheep are sheared each spring, after lambing, just before some breeds would naturally shed their winter coats. Timing is considered critical: Shearing too late means wool loss. In the rush, many sheep die from exposure after premature shearing. Shearers are usually paid by volume, not by the hour, which encourages fast work without regard for the sheep’s welfare. Experienced shearers clip more than 350 sheep in one day, and that pace is maintained for up to four weeks.(6,7) Live Exports When sheep age and their wool production declines, they are sold for slaughter. This results in the cruel live export of millions of sheep every year to the Middle East and North Africa. In January 2006, in conjunction with Animals Australia, PETA conducted an undercover investigation to expose the handling and slaughter conditions endured by sheep who are exported to these destinations from Australia. Contrary to claims made by the Australian government and live-export industry that animals are treated humanely, investigators found that sheep and cows were dragged off trucks by their ears and legs and left to die in barren feedlots. They were bound and thrown into the trunks of cars, and they were slaughtered in prolonged and cruel ways that are illegal in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Live exports to Egypt have since been temporarily suspended. Please visit SaveTheSheep.com for more details about this investigation. Other Kinds of Wool It may be called wool, mohair, pashmina, shahtoosh, or cashmere. But no matter what it’s called, any kind of wool means suffering for animals. Contrary to what many consumers think, “shearling” is not sheared wool. A shearling is a yearling sheep who has been shorn once. A shearling garment is made from the skin and coat of a sheep or a lamb who is shorn shortly before slaughter; the skin is tanned with the wool still on it. Cashmere is made from the coats of cashmere goats, who are kept by the millions in China and Mongolia, which dominate the market for this “luxury” material.(8) Industry experts advise that farmers should expect to kill 50 to 80 percent of young goats because their coats do not meet standards.(9) Angora rabbits may be strapped to a board for shearing, kicking powerfully in protest as clippers or scissors inevitably bite into their flesh. Angora rabbits have very delicate foot pads, which means that they often develop excruciatingly painful foot ulcers when they are forced to spend their lives standing on the floors of wire cages. Female rabbits produce more wool than males do, so on larger farms, male rabbits who are not destined to be breeders are killed at birth.(10) Shahtoosh is made from the coat of the endangered chiru, or Tibetan antelope. Because chirus cannot be domesticated, they must be killed before their wool can be obtained. Although it has been illegal to sell or possess shahtoosh products since 1975, thousands of chirus are killed every year for shawls that are sold on the black market for as much as $15,000 apiece. It takes up to five dead antelopes to make one shawl.(11) The alpaca-wool industry exploded in the 1980s, when South American alpacas and llamas were marketed worldwide to entrepreneurs. The demand for alpaca wool has increased, so much so that herds numbering in the tens of thousands are now raised in the United States and Australia. Most of the world’s alpacas live in Peru, but government officials there believe that Australia could take over the industry within two decades.(12) What You Can Do Use alternatives to wool, including cotton, cotton flannel, polyester fleece, synthetic shearling, and other cruelty-free fibers, as people with wool allergies have been doing for years. Tencel—which is breathable, durable, and biodegradable—is one of the newest cruelty-free wool substitutes. Polartec Wind Pro, which is made primarily from recycled plastic soda bottles, is a high-density fleece with four times the wind resistance of wool, and it also wicks away moisture.(13) Buy clothing from retailers that have pledged not to sell Australian merino wool products until mulesing and live exports have ended, such as American Eagle Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland, Aéropostale, and Limited Brands. References 1) Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts, “Scandinavian Sheep,” Knitters Magazine 2000. 2) Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Year Book Australia, 2006,” 25 Jan. 2006. 3) Australian Wool Innovation Production Forecasting Committee, “Australian Wool Production Forecast Report,” Australian Wool Innovation Limited, Sep. 2003. 4) Linda Sharman, “Wool Fightback,” Countryman (Western Australia), 11 Nov. 2004. 5) Richard Yallop, “Farmers Strike a Blowie for Long-Suffering Sheep,” Australian 20 Dec. 2004. 6) “Shearing Alternatives Under the Spotlight,” Country-Wide Northern 1 Nov. 2004. 7) Veterinary Education and Information Network, “Wool: The Major Sheep-Farm Product,” Sheep Health & Production (Sydney: University of Sydney, 2003). 8) “World Markets,” Cashemere Producers of America, 23 Jun. 2006. 9) “Cashmere Characteristics,” Cashmere Producers of America, 23 Jun. 2006. 10) F. Lebas et al., The Rabbit—Husbandry, Health, and Production (Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1997). 11) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “Shatoosh Dealers Plead Guilty to Smuggling and Illegal Sale of Tibetan Antelope Shawls,” news release, 7 Jul. 2000. 12) “A Shaggy Business,” The Economist 1 Dec. 2005. 13) Sal Ruibal, “Edge of Winter: Beauty, Danger; Layering Clothes Essential for Sudden Temperature Shifts,” USA Today 23 Nov. 2001.
^^^I never knew all that! Here I was innocently thinking that they simply shaved the lambs and let them go on their merry way. Now I feel bad--I just bought four skeins of merino wool yesterday. Poor sheep!
Wow Shutterfly... I feel like a rainbow should form over your head lead by a star with the "The more you know" tune playing. (I hope you know what I am referring to) Eitherway, thank you all for the information, I am glad I asked and glad that I have wool alergies <- maybe I have them for a reason.
I figured it was because some folks are overly pc about the whole thing. Try doing some serious hiking wearing cotton or synthetic socks and see what happens to your feet. They'll end up bearing a strong resemblance to hamburger.
I understand that in Australia and America wooling sheep are treated appaulingly and a large amount of wool comes from these sheep. As far as I know conditions are much better in Britain and some Eastern European States. Sheep actually do need to be wooled because many have become dependant on it and do not shed their wool properly and they can become ill from the overheating
Wow shutterfly. I also was naive about the wool industry. I also just assumed they were shaved and that was that. However, I don't use wool anyway, cause I'm allergic too!
Hey I just wanted to throw my thoughts on the table for discussion. I follow a mostly vegan diet but am strictly vegetarian. I have a pair of leather gloves which were my dad's when he was a boy. I wear them in the winter. Some people have told me that I am not really a vegetarian because I wear them. I understand vegans do not want to use animals in anyway. I am very conscious of the cruelty that goes on in production of leather (not to mention whool, thanks shutterfly.) However, I think it all depends on your own definitions and motivations for observing a vegetarian diet. For me, vegetarianism is a diet. Simply it means that I do not eat any meat. My motivations for this are for the most part spiritual and health reasons. I stopped eating meat because my yoga teacher convinced me no spiritual progress can be made without a vegetarian diet. These are my reasons. Animal rights and environmental sustainabilty are also part of my motivation, but not nearly as much as spirituality and health. I do not support killing of any kind. However, I also do not have a problem with wearing the gloves. The animal was killed years ago, and me choosing not to wear the gloves will not bring the animal back to life. As long as I don't eat the gloves, I still beleive that I am a vegetarian. Again it all goes back to your definition of the word. Thats all -Ben
As a vegan I do not purchase anything made from animals but I do believe it's okay to use things that already exist and are used. To get the most use out of something that has already been made is just functional and efficient. Some could argue that wearing any kind of material made from animals would be supporting the industry but I don't think so. I see the point... as far as anyone who doesn't know another can see they're just wearing leather while going on about animal rights... but I still think it's better to use something 'til it can no longer be used than to throw it out because one no longer supports the ongoing industry. I suppose one could donate it out for further use to someone else instead of using it themseves. But if it just got wasted then the death of the animal would truly be in vain.
