A few days ago, I posted a link to PETA’s Save the Sheep website, which contained information about “mulesing,” or the cutting of sheep’s skin to get the fleece. I was facing a conundrum because I love knitting with wool and it bothers me to imagine sheep in pain. I do believe animals can feel pain and fear. The video on the site is horrifying (but deals with cattle and sheep being slaughtered for food; not mulesing).
However, the more I poked around the Save the Sheep website, the more skeptical I became. PETA takes the hardline: If you buy wool you are an accomplice so DO. NOT. BUY. WOOL. The latest press release is about how H&M has agreed to stop buying wool from Australian companies that practice museling.
I don’t know if I can subscribe to this hardline approach. I mean, people have been using wool for thousands of years, and for good reason. This is not to say I want to remain ignorant of the issue. So I did some (admittedly very light at this point) research.
What I found confused me even more, but so far this is what I gather: Mulesing is outlawed everywhere except Australia and Australia produces about 30 percent of the world’s wool (this includes luxury wool not used for knitting, crocheting, etc.). So if you buy wool from the US, South America, Canada, even New Zealand you are buying cruelty-free wool. Also, there is an article here that gives an explanation of why Australia participates in mulesing. It seems it has less to do with being mean and getting the fleece and more to do with a pesky fly. Perhaps it doesn’t justify mulesing, but it’s information you won’t get from PETA and it adds some context.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on mulesing, which mentions that the Australian government is thinking of phasing out the practice by 2010.
Here’s a link to a Ravelry thread on the topic.
Hope this clears some stuff up, or better yet encourages you to find out even more (and if you do please tell me about it!)
5 comments
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March 19, 2008 at 6:33 pm
ruth
good to know. i have heard of PETA’s stance, and i agree. it’s a little extreme. but mulesing, thanks for bringing it up.
March 20, 2008 at 8:42 am
Opal
i learned more about mulesing too. it may seem harsh, but the flies are really really nasty. it seems to be the lesser of two evils.
March 22, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Aja
Well go you for researching more! I am not giving up wool completely, and I am happy to report my felting wool comes from New Zealand, but despite the mulesing, just the way the sheep were handled in the video really shook me up – their legs were tied and they were being dragged by the ears – it was mean natured and hurting the animals. But until my next door neighbor gets sheep and sells the wool and I can keep an eye on the whole process, it seems so hard to know what do to.
But really, just being aware of these practices and knowing the situation is already a huge step.
March 28, 2008 at 2:21 am
Farmer Savealamb
As an Australian farmer I can only recommend you have a look at this site:
http://youcansavealamb.blogspot.com/
This issue is a very complex one and one that is not solved by boycotts.
Despite being describes as less than sensitive there are some other point you and other consumers need to consider.
The web site is a little rusty as it is the first time I have done one and only started this morning.
One of the things that is interesting is when you take a suit from Zegna or Ralph Lauren or other top designers, or some of the best knitwear.
A suit might cost a customer $1500 for a magnificent Aust Merino fibre suit, better than anything else in the world.
Yet the farmer will be lucky to get $15 for the amount of wool that will go into the suit.
So it is one thing to criticise farmers for doing what they think is best for the welfare of their animals to prevent them being eaten alive by maggots, but the consumer needs to know they have to be part of the a process that makes sure farmers are rewarded for their work, care and environmental stewardship in trying to clothe and feed the world.
It is a very complex debate.
The income of people doing it tough on the farm is at risk by people trying to say the wrong story. As I mentioned in the web page, no one likes having to mules their sheep.
Australian farmers on average work over 70hrs a week, which includes some of the most backbreaking hard work imaginable.
They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars feeding livestock they have spent many years breeding, to keep them alive in drought.
They receive little income after their ever spiralling costs are taken to account.
They then are pilloried by media and animal rights groups from around the world who are hell bent on taking away their customers so they will be financially and emotionally destroyed.
Once the farmers are gone, who will look after the most exciting source for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, the soil?
Once the farmers are gone, who will look after the animals left to go wild and feral?
Once the farmers are gone, who will provide the food for the third world countries who cannot feed themselves?
It won’t be the animal rights extremists.
So when someone buys a $1500 suit and remembers that the farmer on the other side of the world is getting $15 for his contribution, it doesn’t seem much to think they might Save a Lamb by spending $50 so they will be able to buy another suit next year….and a farmer might still be alive and in business.
With the drought in Australia that has been so devastating over the past 7 years, there is one farmer killing themselves every three days.
They cannot cope with the stress that is being placed on them financially and emotionally. They aren’t coping with the lack of support and certainty they are able to provide their families.
They can not cope with the stress their relationships are under because of the amount of money and energy they spend looking after their animals to keep them alive and in many cases cant deal with the emotional and financial needs of their family.
One Australian Farmer commits suicide every three days!
Rates of severe clinical depression are highest in Australian farmers than any other group in Australia.
Australian farmers have to deal with this and worry how they are going to keep going and keep their families together.
And at the same time they are attacked from people from all over the world who like to go to work looking smart in their suits, who would have no idea that it was made from merino wool, have never been to a sheep farm and probably don’t know where milk, bread or steak come from, but will make a judgement about what a specialist, caring environmentalist wool grower is doing on the other side of the world.
I am really sorry to download on you about this.
I have had too many friends suffer from depression, too many stories of suicide, too many stories of people being evicted from their farms by banks because the global supply chain rapes them, then makes them out to be the perpetrators of a crime.
This is a very complex issue and a boycott will not solve it.
How do we so easily overlook the suffering of people in an attempt to make ourselves feel good by thinking we are doing something for animals.
March 28, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Kitty
Not all farmers use mulesing for their sheeps. There are alternatives with possibility to get rid of the flies around the land where the sheep are kept, rather than waiting until the sheeps are infected. In general the best way is to support local farmers that doesn’t use mulesing!