Today, my friend Hugh posted this on his Facebook page, from someone named John Acuff.
Let's be perfectly clear: Sheep, alpacas, llamas, goats, bunnies, and other fur bearing critters do not die when they are sheared for their wool. And in fact, shearing the animal is helpful to it, since many breeds of sheep and goats do not lose their hair in a spring molt (yes, there are some which do, but most domesticated breeds don't), and the fleece keeps growing, which must be very uncomfortable in the summer. A couple of years ago a sheep was recovered in New Zealand which had escaped its paddock. It hadn't been sheared in a couple of years, its wool content was
HUGE and it could barely walk. It looked something like this:
The vegan group which put out this advert should include the tagline, "Go Vegan, Wear More Polyester," since vegans don't wear the wool or fleece of what they consider enslaved animals. I'm sure we all want to have more dead dinosaur artificial fibres wrapped around our bodies. Honesty alert: I am a vegetarian and I have not eaten meat in almost 25 years. I also don't give a damn what you eat and will never castigate you for eating meat. That said, I wear wool. And alpaca. And llama. I eat cheese and ice cream made from milk, too. I have only knit in acrylic once, at the request of a friend to make a hat with yarn that reflected light. Good for an early morning or late night jogger, I guess, though my friend didn't jog. I can also say I hated knitting it because it didn't feel right. I always knit with natural fibres, and often turn down yarn with nylon in it (yeah, I know it's great for making socks, but I don't make socks, and so I don't want nylon in my shawls). I guess a vegan could knit with cotton, and a cotton sweater would be fine for life down here in Louisiana, but I come from New England, and I would not want to brave some of our sub-zero days with a cotton sweater. Give me wool.
I remember seeing a video (which I cannot find on Youtube) of a shearer in New Zealand who, fed up with the lying propaganda from PETA, stripped down to his Wellies and sheared a sheep while naked. The owner of the farm filmed him doing so. His action was in response to this advert from PETA:
Aside from the fact that they're using a fake sheep in the photo, most shearers are careful (and fast) and do not nick or cut the sheep, Certainly not to the extent that this toy lamb has been modified. I have seen sheep shearing demonstrations, and while the sheep might suffer a bit of a bruised dignity, it is no worse for the wear after shearing. Besides, electric trimmers don't inflict this kind of damage. Farmers who are raising sheep for fibre know that if they damage their sheep like this, they won't have sheep very long. These beasts are an investment that has to provide a return on that investment. A quick Google search shows that a breeding female alpaca sells for anything between $1000 and $5000 and more. I can't imagine someone wantonly damaging an animal this expensive to get a fleece. Having spoken with various farmers of various animals at fibre festivals, the people who raise and breed these beasts really take good care of them, want the best for them, and don't want to damage them. I think the best summation I can come up with is PETA lies.
Acquiring the wool with which we knit doesn't kill the animal. No one has to die to make a sweater. These adverts are as untruthful as they are ridiculous.
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