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For sheep’s sake

Paula Moore

Norfolk, Va.

The PETA Foundation

Sheep are such gentle individuals that children sing nursery rhymes about them and adults count them to help us doze off. Yet when we buy wool sweaters and winter coats, we are supporting a violent industry that leaves these animals broken and bloody.

PETA and its international affiliates have repeatedly revealed that the abuse of sheep is entrenched in the global wool industry. As shearers race against the clock, they lose their tempers over small delays and often take out their frustrations on the terrified, struggling sheep–dragging them by the legs, punching and kicking them, slamming them to the floor, and more.

Earlier this year, an eyewitness worked on a sheep farm in Victoria, Australia–the country is the world’s top wool exporter–and documented that workers cut chunks of flesh off lambs’ hindquarters with shears in a crude attempt to address problems that are caused by breeding them to produce excessive amounts of wool.

When PETA first exposed this gruesome procedure, known as “mulesing,” Australian wool industry officials promised to phase it out by 2010. But most lambs in Australia are still subjected to this torment.

This holiday shopping season, for sheep’s sake, please choose warm and cozy cotton flannel, polyester fleece, or other vegan materials instead of wool.

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