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Fur Farming | Leather Farming | Wool Farming

Wool Industry: A Shaggy Trade

Hit or Myth?

People think that shearing sheep helps the wool; that is not right! Did you know that if sheep are not sheared, they make just enough for themselves and shed and grow wool as needed.

How can you keep warm?

Use cotton flannel, polyester fleece, and synthetic shearling; all of them can keep you warm cruelty-free. We don't need to wear someone else's skin to keep us warm

Chew on this...

Cashmere, mohair, wool, shatoosh, pashmina are different types of wool; all of these animals endure excruciating pain and death before being turned into products for humans.
Sheep, goats, and the Tibetan antelope are the animals most often killed for wool.
Australia is estimated to have more than 100 million sheep.
Australia produces 30% of all wool used worldwide; particularly, Australia produces about 50% of the Merino wool used worldwide.
Sheep are bred rapidly so the wool farmers can have sufficient lambs to make up for slaughtered sheep.
Timing is a very important for shearing; if the timing is right, the shearers can gather the most wool from each sheep.
Sheep are typically sheared in spring, right after lambing.
If sheep are sheared prematurely, before their winter coats would have been naturally shed, the sheep can die due to being exposed to cruel winter weather without their coat to protect the,.
When a particular sheep's wool production capacity diminishes, the wasted animal is shipped off for slaughter.
Australia ships 6.5 million sheep every year to Middle East and North Africa.
Shearling is not sheared wool; it is a yearling sheep that has been shorn just once.
Shatoosh is made from the endangered Tibetan antelope; it is estimated that about 20,000 antelopes are killed for their wool yearly, which could make this animal extinct in less than a decade.
Cashmere is made from Cashmere goats.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics, "Year Book Australia, 2006," 25 Jan. 2006.
"World Markets," Cashemere Producers of America, 23 Jun. 2006.