The truth about...
In this section, we have collected a small but growing series of articles exposing the cruelty, toxicity and environmental hazards associated with the various animal exploitation industries.
Please navigate to a specific article to learn more.
The truth about wool
What's wrong with wool you ask?
"Well on the surface, it appears that wool is a benign product because, at least theoretically it can be obtained without harming the sheep. However upon a closer inspection you'll find the wool industry is actually very similar to the exploitative egg and dairy industries. While animals such as egg laying hens, dairy cows and wool bearing sheep are not immediately killed to procure their salable products, the suffer tremendously for years prior to their ultimate and unavoidable slaughter." - Veg Source
Wool can come from either sheep or goats and sometimes rabbits. It may be called wool, mohair, pashmina or cashmere. Unfortunately it is an industry that is not often discussed or exposed for what it is. Many people do not know that the sheep farming industry involves abuse, pain and suffering. The animals are often treated inhumanely and are made to undergo severe amounts of pain and brutality. Lambs ears are punched, their tails cut off and the males castrated all without anesthesia within the first few weeks of their lives. Male lambs are castrated when they are between 2 and 8 weeks old, either by making an incision and cutting their testicles out. The other option is to use a rubber ring to cut off the blood supply to the testes which is one of the most painful and barbaric practices of castration. Every single year, hundreds of lambs die before the age of 8 weeks from exposure or starvation. Many mature sheep die every year from disease, lack of shelter, and neglect.
We are told that shearing a sheep is a humane practice because the sheep would otherwise be burdened with kilograms of excess wool. This of course is a myth. Sheep grow enough wool to cover, insulate and protect themselves. It is only through human involvement that the wool grows faster because it is constantly being sheared off. Sheep are sheared each spring, after lambing, just before they would naturally shed their winter coats. Timing is considered critical. Shearing too late means loss of wool. 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 welfare of the sheep.
In Australia there is a process called "mulesing" whereby they force live sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs between metal bars, and without any painkillers whatsoever, huge strips of flesh are carved off the backs of unanesthetized lambs' legs and around the tail area. This is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that can't harbor fly eggs. Ironically, the exposed, bloody wounds themselves often get flystrike (an infection of maggots under the skin) before they heal.
Mulesing
Unfortunately for the sheep, this is not the only abuse they will experience. When sheep age and their wool production declines, they are of no use to wool farmers and so are discarded and transported for slaughter. This results in the cruel live export of 6.5 million sheep every year from Australia to the Middle East and North Africa, where sheep are crammed aboard multi tiered open-deck ships. The conditions that they have to endure are atrocious. They are often left standing in their own urine and fecal matter cramped together in temperatures exceeding 37.8 C. Many sheep will leave the ship ill and infected and are still sold to be slaughtered.
The wool industry is also detrimental for our environment. Manure releases vast amounts of methane which heavily contribute to greenhouse gases and global warming. Fecal matter pollutes the water systems and the sheep cause soil erosion. Sheep are 'dipped' into toxic chemicals to 'protect' them from parasites which are poisonous and harmful for both the sheep and the environment.
Luckily there are many alternatives for wool for those of us who don't want to support the sheep farming industry. Cotton, cotton flannel, polyester fleece, synthetic shearling, acrylic and hemp are all alternatives to wool that are cheaper and easier to care for. By not buying wool you are taking a stand against cruelty, neglect and abuse.
The truth about silk
Silk is a protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. Today, China and Japan are the two main producers, together accounting for more than 50% of global production each year.
The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity or otherwise known as sericulture. Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk. Commercially reared silkworm pupae are killed by dipping them in boiling water before the adult moths emerge, or by piercing them with a needle, allowing the whole cocoon to be unraveled as one continuous thread. This allows a much stronger cloth to be woven from the silk. Some silk producers prefer to bake the cocoons so that the pupae dries out and doesn’t begin to rot and smell.
All of these processes inflict pain on an innocent being so that we may wear their byproducts. Many people argue that it is unnecessary to kill any beings for silk when there are artificial silks available. “Wild Silk” for instance is the use of the cocoon once a moth has successfully hatched but is not used as often because the moth will damage the cocoon when it emerges causing shorter fibers. This means that the silk has to be spun instead of reeled which is more costly. Many fabrics are available that look and behave like silk which are completely man made. Humane alternatives to silk include nylon, milkweed seed-pod fibers, silk-cotton tree and ceiba tree filaments, and rayon.
Be guilt free. Don’t buy silk.
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