IS WOOL REALLY A CRUELTY-FREE INDUSTRY? THE TRUTHS UNCOVERED
Article by Emma Håkansson, Founder and Director of Willow Creative Co
Image courtesy of whowhatwear
There is a common misconception, spread by the wool industry, that wool is a cruelty free material, so long as farmers obey animal welfare laws, and shear their animals carefully. This could not be farther from the truth.
Consumers who care about animals have a right to understand the true cost of wool. In this article everything but shearing will be discussed, so as to show that wool cruelty is standard practice.
It begins with the breeding of sheep.
Every year in Australia around 10 to 15 million newborn lambs die of starvation, neglect and exposure within 48 hours of birth, due largely to the practice of winter lambing.
Farmers practice winter lambing in order to produce the highest number of lambs at the lowest cost. Sheep are impregnated so that they give birth in winter months and their babies are weaned in spring, the times that pastures are most fertile. This means the mothers have richer feed in winter, and the surviving lambs grow fatter more quickly in springtime, without supplemented feed needing to be bought, as it would likely need to be if weaning occurred in summer.
The result of this choice on lambs born into the harsh winter conditions, means that up to a quarter of them do not survive their first few days. For farmers, the millions of deaths are an acceptable consequence of reduced feed costs and heavier spring lambs.
Another cause of suffering in the breeding of sheep comes from many years of selective breeding of certain sheep and breeds with specific genes, so that farmed sheep regularly have twins and triplets.
These multiple births regularly involve birthing complications. Mother ewes can exhaust themselves birthing multiple lambs and become ‘downed’, and can even prolapse and die, leaving orphaned lambs.
Multiple births lead to babies being born weaker, smaller, and therefore with a lower chance of survival. This is especially the case with triplets, who are being seen more and more often by rescuers.
More lambs also mean more rejections by their mothers, as they choose the strongest baby in hope that one may live – an already tough challenge for mothers birthing in winter. Mother ewes are often exhausted and in poor condition themselves, sometimes needing to prioritise keeping themselves alive. These factors all lead to a high number of deaths.
Slaughter
The majority of sheep killed in Australia are lambs, slaughtered when they are around 6 – 8 months of age. Sheep can naturally live up to 20 years, with a typical lifespan of 10-12 years.
Every year an average of 22.72 million lambs are slaughtered.
These lambs are slaughtered for their meat. Farmers often can make an extra profit from shearing lambs before slaughter and selling their wool. This is one of the reasons that the wool and meat industries are interconnected.
Sheep that are ‘bred for wool’ are kept alive for longer than those slaughtered for lamb meat. These sheep are routinely shorn every year, until their wool production decreases and is less valuable. Sheep are ‘cast for age’ and sent to be slaughtered at 5 – 6 years old when their wool becomes more brittle, and of a lesser quality and quantity. These sheep are still young, and would naturally live for 10-12 years.
Sheep that are slaughtered when they no longer profit the wool industry have their flesh sold as mutton meat.
Mutton meat comes from sheep that have been bred for wool, and can be considered a co-product of the industry. If sheep are not being exploited for their wool, it would not be profitable for farmers to keep them alive for longer than the 6 – 8 months time period at which point lambs are slaughtered.
Every year an average of 8.4 million fully grown sheep are slaughtered. These sheep will, mostly, go through sale yards and be sold to the highest bidder – often this means sheep being sold into live export.
Cruel Standard Practices
Sheep are subjected to routine mutilations, such as tail docking. This is why you almost never see a sheep with their tail.
From Agriculture Victoria: ‘Acceptable methods of tail docking, without anaesthesia, are: cutting with a sharp knife; applying rubber rings according to the manufacturer’s recommendation, or using a gas flame heated scarring iron…’
The Responsible Wool Standard, a type of so called ‘animal welfare’ accreditation which, as of May 2019, 13 Australian organisations are certified with, recommends a heated scarring iron for tail docking. A heated scarring iron, also described by RWS as a ‘hot knife’, sears through the flesh and bone with its intense heat, severing the tail.
Tail docking is done so as to prevent fly strike, a myiasis condition where domesticated sheep are infected by fly species which are a type of external parasite to sheep. However, this is not not a necessary procedure, and sanctuaries with rescues animals protect their sheep from fly strike by far less invasive care techniques. Kind methods of fly strike prevention are far more time consuming and therefore costly, which is not considered ‘good business’ in the sheep industry.
Castration of male lambs is done in much the same way as tail docking. Agriculture Victoria state:
‘Acceptable methods of castrating male lambs without anaesthesia are by:
(a) cutting: the lamb should be properly restrained and the knife (cutting instrument) should be kept clean and sharp; good post-operative drainage of the wound is required;
(b) rubber rings applied according to the manufacturer’s recommendation’
The Responsible Wool Standard recommends castration be performed on babies between 24 hours and 8 weeks old. RWS recommends castration by cutting circulation to the testicles by rubber banding, or by an ’emasculator’ which is a tool that crushes and severs the spermatic cord.
Castration is performed on male lambs, as farmers want to ensure only the ewes and rams with the best, most profitable genes are bred, and only at specific times of the year which are cost effective.
‘We know that castration will cause pain, regardless of which castration method is used or the age…’
– A Greener World, Animal Welfare Approved
Technical Paper
Mulesing is the practice of slicing skin around the buttocks of a sheep off. This practice was introduced in Australia in the 1930s, to prevent fly strike.
The code of conduct by Agriculture Victoria around mulesing is very weak and does not protect sheep. For example:
‘The recommended age for mulesing is 2 to 12 weeks’
‘Mulesing of sheep over 6 months must be done with anaesthesia’
There is no mention of pain relief required prior to 6 months of age, which means farmers slice skin off the buttocks of baby lambs without anaesthetic.
Again, mulesing is not necessary to prevent fly strike, it is simply the most cost effective method of prevention. Profit is placed above the well-being of lambs.
Before the practice of sheep shearing is even discussed, it is clear this industry is not a cruelty free one.
Luckily, there are sustainable alternatives: organic cotton, recycled cotton, hemp, Tencel, bamboo, to name a few.
We can create a kinder world every time we buy something, because we vote with our dollar. Please help to create a world in which animals are here with us and not for us, where they are seen as the loving, sentient beings they are, rather than as stock to be exploited for profit.
The above information, and references for it, can be found on WoolTruth.com, Animal Liberation Victoria’s recent campaign exposing this industries true darkness.
If you are a brand considering going wool free, you can contact emma@willowcreativeco.com to discuss this possibility and how to make it happen in the most ethical and sustainable way!
