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Originally Posted by Baile
Wool is exploitation of animals? Have to disagree there. There is a point where conscious awareness goes off the rails and becomes belief fanaticism. As in the difference between Love God, and Love God or burn in Hell.
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Do you know why that is the consensus in the vegan community?
Merino sheep are bred to have a skin that is a little 'large' which means they produce more wool than the average sheep. In Australia, which produces the majority of the worlds wool (so I've heard), when the lambs are very young, they are strapped into a frame and then, using a pair of shears, a hand size chunk of skin is cut off their backsides on either side of their tails. This is to prevent fly strike which simply means that when the wool gets dirty from manure and urine, the flies get in there and begin laying eggs and then the larvae feed on the sheets flesh. Cutting this hand size chunk of skin and flesh off heals with a smooth, bare scar. At the same time, their tails are cut off with the same shears.
As the sheep are being sheared, they are manhandled and abused, their skin is often torn while being sheared and then the shearers sew them back up without any anesthetic. Their pain and terror must be incredible.
After a certain age, they no longer grow nice wool, so they are loaded up onto livestock trucks, hauled to the harbour and then shipped on open ships to Indonesia, Gaza, Malaysia, etc., where they are further abused (if they survive the filthy, overcrowded and horribly hot ships that is) and then have their throats sliced open without even the benefit of stunning. Moslems are horrific in how they treat these animals and if you start looking at the various and numerous videos covering halal slaughter, cattle abuse Indonesia, etc., you will be appalled. An animal rights group in Australia filmed the horrors in slaughterhouses in both Indonesia one year and Egypt another and the Australian government actually stopped the live transport for about 6 months in each case because the cruelty towards cattle and sheep was so egregious and profound, until some slight improvements were made although in recent undercover investigations since, the conditions have not actually improved all that much because the problem of people not caring about the animals hasn't changed. They still don't care.
Yes, sheep are abused and exploited at every stage of their lives. Frankly, except for our pets, it can rightly be said that every animal used by humans is exploited and abused in some fashion. And this has nothing to do with consciousness or awareness or how close you are to 'righteous awareness' or fanaticism, but everything to do with hurting and terrorizing helpless animals without care or concern for their feelings and well being.