March 3, 2023
Last week we received an email from a woman who was thoroughly distraught that we were making a celebration of our sheep shearing. The atrocities that she attributed to the wool industry in general were absolutely horrific, and to my knowledge completely unfounded. I can’t imagine how painful it must be to be her and believe there is so much evil all around. I know it exists, but I also know for certain that it is not the norm, and that alone is reason enough to celebrate.
I won’t reprint what she wrote, in large part because I don’t believe there was any truth in it, but here was my response.
We neither dock our sheep’s tails nor castrate the males. We are however, legally required to tag their ears to comply with federal scrapie regulations. I’d prefer not to, but the lambs don’t seem to mind. When I had my ears pierced, it hurt for a week, but the lambs just shake their heads a couple times and then go back to doing whatever they were doing before I tagged them. We don’t dock their tails because our Shetland’s tails are already short. Other breeds need to because their feces can at times accumulate on the tail and be a breeding ground for flies and maggots. The process of docking involves putting an elastic band around the tail at the desired length. The band cuts off the circulation and after a week or so the tail falls off on its own. Like I said we don’t do this because our lambs’ tails are already short, but if we had a longer tailed breed, I probably would. I’ve seen it done and the lambs don’t even notice the procedure. The same with castrating. Castration is done by placing the elastic band over the scrotum which causes the testicles to shrivel up and fall off after a couple weeks. Like I said we don’t castrate our ram lambs but I know lots of farmers who do and from what I can see the lamb is not happy to have the band “down there” but they quickly go back to doing whatever it was they were doing.
I’ve had sheep for 20 years and met thousands of sheep and their farmers and the only sheep I’ve seen with wrinkly skin are the Merino breed of Australia, it is not common in this country. Fly strike is a real problem here as well but it is almost always from undocked tails. There are commonly available sprays (at Tractor Supply) that effectively kill flies and maggots. We had two (uncastrated) rams that got in a fight and one got a puncture wound from the other’s horn. The flies discovered it before I did, but with the $4 spray can from Tractor Supply, I was able to get rid of the flies immediately (no need to cut anything out).
I have met hundreds of Livestock Farmers and dozens of Shearers. And yes, we are all horribly paid but that does not in itself make us bad people. Our current shearer is a young man who shears most of the sheep in CT and travels all over the country. He works extremely hard, is extremely fast and yet he practices yoga, is righteously ethical, and amazing with my animals. He takes pride in what he does and has never cut any of them. If he ever mistreated any animal in anyway, every sheep farmer in New England would know about it by morning. We are a small, closely knit community constantly in contact with one another – asking for advice, or help with something. He’d be out of work immediately, but that’s not why he is so caring – he’s just a decent human being. And he has my complete respect.
We shear our sheep in March because I think it’s important to have it done for lambing. The newborn lamb can find the mom’s milk much easier if she’s not covered with wool. It also encourages the mom to seek shelter in the barn if the weather turns cold – and where the mom goes the lamb will follow. If the mom is covered with wool, she’s unlikely to even notice a cold rainy day. Sheep’s metabolism is different than humans - as ruminates they create their own furnace while they digest hay in their 4 chambered stomachs. Like deer in the forest (which don’t have any wool at all to keep them warm), they are both ruminates and are able to deal with the cold internally.
I have had dogs that were absolutely terrified to go to the vet each year, but I took them anyway. Most of our sheep don’t struggle or seem to care that they are being shorn. I’m sure they would prefer not to, but their level of fear is nothing compared to my dog when he recognized the vet’s parking lot. My vet owns his own practice and therefore gets paid by the number of dogs he sees and vaccinates each day – it would never occur to me that this in itself would lead to unethical treatment of my animals.
People mistreat their dogs in horrible ways, but I don’t think the entire dog industry should be condemned because of it. I’m sure there are probably psychotic people doing horrible things to sheep somewhere, but I have NEVER met any. All the shepherds I have met have been among the kindest, caring, most ethical people I have ever known. I am extremely proud to be in their midst.
I agree that factory farming is a horrible blight on our American soul, but to me that is all the more reason to support small, local, and ethical farms. There is so much misinformation “out there” that I often just want to quit altogether – but then there’d be one less farm doing it right….