Mulesing

Amend my last posting.

I am going on a stash-purging spree instead, and will be frugally making stuff with what I've already got.
Why? you might ask...
Is the reality of the recession finally hitting me?
Well, yes and no.
I HAVE been buying too much yarn with abandon lately, but that is not the real reason for my sudden abstinence and puritan rigor within my craft.
No indeed.
It is something much more horrific,
something that I had not even considered until I saw a link on the Knitty.com site.

Unsavory and cruel practices regarding sheep, called MULESING.

Read about it here:
http://www.savethesheep.com/animals.asp

Here is what wikipedia says:
"Mulesing is the surgical removal of strips of wool-bearing wrinkle skin around the tail of a sheep.[1] [2] Mulesing is common practice in Australia as a way to reduce the incidence of flystrike on Merino sheep in regions where flystrike is common.[2]
Veterinary opinion considers muelsing a necessary animal husbandry practise in providing for the general welfare of sheep in areas of Australia[3] however some animal welfare advocates strongly oppose mulesing, and say mulesing without anesthesia is cruel and painful, and that more humane alternatives exist.[4] It is expected to be phased out in Australia by 2010,[2][5] and has already been phased out in New Zealand.[6]"

This is a nice way of putting it, as any of the pictures on the animal rights pages will show.

Do a Google search and see for yourself. This is no way to treat ANYTHING, let alone a social, sentient creature with nerve endings and a family.


I am truly disgusted and angry about this.



I started knitting as a peaceful non-violent craft, meditation and pass time.
It is a form of therapy for me, as it is for many others out there.
I always thought that sheep LIKED being sheared, and have a city-person's idealized view of country life.





In other words, I am an ignoramus when it comes to farm-life.



like many of my upper-middle class, citified brethren, I do buy a lot of expensive hand-spun and dyed stuff from small farms, where, I still believe, the flocks are treated respectfully and well.



It is, as ever, the big production animal husbandry folks who on a grand scale are the culprets committing unspeakable atrocities. For example,The US meat industry is truly disgusting, and foreign ones no better.



Buy small-scale for more reasons than one.
Pay more for carefully and respectfully reared organic meats and one should be OK, or at least that's my theory.
Wool I had not given a thought to.





I HAD thought about the negative environmental impact sheep have when grazing- they destroy all plant life in their paths, eating it all down to the quick, and leaving barren land that erodes behind them. Small wonder that sheep herders were traditionally nomads.



Nowadays shepherds are not nomads, and no longer want to watch their flocks- therefore they are up in arms about wolves and coyotes and bears and any other predators that might come by. As the sheep are kept in pens it's like going to the superette for the carnivores. I am less-than-sympathetic with all of this.



We must all live together, and if they were doing their jobs on a reasonable SCALE, that is with flocks of a watchable size, that migrated, and had shepherds with them, this would not be happening.



But now this:
Mulesing.



And I HAVE bought Merino from a big company in Australia recently. To make matters worse,
it was expensive and has not worked well for the sweater I knit from it. I need to check and find out if this brand is culpable or not. The idea makes me sick to my stomach.



Therefore:
I am using what I have.
If any damage has been done, it was done a while ago.



I have some lovely blueberry colored llama wool a friend gave me, that I am planning a top-down steeked(!) cardigan with. it should be gorgeous.
and a laptop cover with LOTS of colors,
and my huge seashell, in a lovely ropey white wool purchased long before any awful painful, bloody sheep cruelty entered my consciousness.



I am not sorry knowing- it is better to know about such things and act accordingly.
But-
I am sad.
How come human ingenuity so often results in barbarity?
Why are we so drawn to it?
Water boarding is, it seems, only one lovely example of our creativity.