Today I'm turning to a topic that I've been putting off as a blog post for a bit longer. The reason is that it is an emotionally heavy and extensive area for me. It is about animal welfare and the fair treatment of animals for the profit of wool.
Phew, yes I know, this can get pretty heavy! For this reason, I want to split the post into two parts and tell you today about what some animals have to suffer so that we can use our animal wool for knitting and other crafts. Then next week, there will be a post on what you should look for when choosing materials and buying if you want to avoid animal suffering. In addition to that, I will then share with you a list of producers that includes animal welfare compliant wool manufacturers.
Mulesing
You may have come across the term 'mulesing' before and wondered what it meant. This is a practice used in sheep farming, especially merino sheep. In a nutshell, it involves removing a strip of skin around the tail of lambs with a knife, leaving a smooth scar tissue - and this is done completely without anesthesia and usually without aftercare.
Now, of course, one immediately asks, why do all this? And why merino sheep in particular?
The reason for this procedure is to prevent flies from settling on this area and laying their eggs there. The scarred skin deprives them of this opportunity. However, it is obvious that this is an incredibly painful and brutal method! Especially since the lack of follow-up treatment does not promote the healing process and the lambs often have to cope with inflamed wounds. Which, by the way, are excellent nesting sites for flies ... so much for that.
And why merino sheep? Merino wool is one of the most sought-after types of wool on the market. For this reason, many merino sheep have been bred to have a larger skin area including many skin folds. This increases the area where the wool grows on the animal and therefore the production.
The big problem that this breeding brings is that the skin of the sheep between the folds no longer gets enough air, which causes moisture to form. Especially in the tail area this is a complication, because this moisture is additionally supported by urine and feces. However, this is exactly what the blowfly finds particularly exciting! Attracted by this, they lay their eggs in the folds of the skin. As soon as the fly maggots have hatched, they eat into the skin of the animals and thus cause infections, which the sheep usually do not survive.
Now, one could argue that the precautionary removal of skin folds is then something positive after all to spare the sheep the fly infestation. But is that really the crux of the problem?
In my opinion not! Rather, it should be renounced from the beginning to breed the sheep to peoples needs so that they develop unnaturally large skin areas and thus the 'dangerous' skin folds are formed.
However, this would of course mean that the individual animal produces less wool in one cycle. Which means that the profit decreases, the number of sheep would have to be increased to achieve the same yield, which in turn increases the expenses for the increased number of animals and costs the sheep farm even more space. Many prefer to resort to the higher production rate - all at the expense of the animal!
What we as consumers can do about it and what we should look out for when buying, I'll tell you next week.
Angora rabbit
Angora rabbit wool is an incredibly soft and fluffy yarn, which is spun from their fur. The long haired rabbits were also bred to produce as much and long hair as possible. This change makes it difficult for the animals to keep themselves clean and groomed, as it does not match their natural shape. As a result, their fur can quickly become matted, restricting the rabbit's range of motion, and can lead to inflammation and infection to boot. Again, a fly maggot infestation can then occur as it does in sheep.
Unfortunately, the animal suffering does not stop here. During the 'harvesting' of the fur, the rabbits are subjected to an incredibly high stress and partly pain factor - and this 3 - 4 times a year. The procedure starts already with 6 - 8 weeks old animals, which are either shorn or plucked on a rack to get to the fur. Not only are both procedures associated with shock and panic, but they also suffer incredible pain and injury. Due to this stress, as well as the sudden extreme temperature difference, many Angora rabbits already succumb to the consequences of the first shearing.
Usually, the animals are kept in individual, small cages to prevent them from ruining each other's precious fur. Isolated and living in narrow wire cages, they are thus left to fend for themselves.
But even here there are small isolated alternatives for those who would like to use angora rabbit wool from animal-friendly farming. You'll learn more about that in the next blog post.
Alpaca | Cashmere | Mohair wool
All three types of wool are very soft and noble fibers. Who hasn't had them in their hands as a knitter?
But also here should be selected and purchased consciously. Many yields of alpacas, cashmere and angora goats are obtained through torturous and stressful procedures.
They are either forced to the ground with their legs tied or tied to a rack where they are then sheared. Workers do not always have shearing machines at hand for this purpose, which is why the tool can also be replaced by sharp knives or even shards. This leads in addition to the large panic, under which the animals suffer, to injuries, which are not fairly cared for. Just as in the cases before: it is not always the animal welfare in the foreground, but unfortunately also very often the financial profit.
In some areas the workers are not paid by the hour but by the number of animals sheared. This obviously leads to careless and incautious handling of the living creatures.
Not only the stress and shock or the injuries can mean the death for the animals, also it is possible that some of them freeze to death depending upon habitat, since the protecting fur was taken from them.
So let's take a breath... these are some pretty intense and sad things we are dealing with this week. But what's the point of just looking the other way and not making our own consumption more animal-friendly? Even if we're not directly the person inflicting the suffering on the animal at that moment, we can still do our part and be more conscious about buying our wool so as not to support these practices.
I'll tell you next week how you can better align your purchase accordingly and give examples of which manufacturers you can stick to.
Until then, I wish you a beautiful week!
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