Designers Boycott Aussie Wool

Bouwer_1

Anyone heard of Marc Bouwer? Me neither! The American designer who specialises in glitzy gowns has joined Abercrombie and Fitch, New Look and Etam in a boycott of Australian wool, supplier of 1/4 of the world's wool. I naively pictured strapping young Aussies shearing sheep in the sun, before going off for a Victoria Bitter; but PETA paints a very different picture. Australian merino sheep often die of heat exhaustion and are inhumanely treated from birth. When their wool production declines they are sent to the Middle East for slaughter with many dying on the way. PETA's 'Save The Sheep' website includes a guide to cruelty free knitting.

Designers Boycott Aussie Wool - Comments

Peta

Hear hear laura - I come from a sheep station in Western Australia that works with Merino sheep, and I feel that some of what PETA (How ironic that that's also my name!) has come up with is complete bollocks.

During the past 5 years, we have been in a severe drought, so many of us have either become extremly poor, or bankrupt. Contrary to what some may think, running a sheep station the size of mine (500,000 acres) is extremely expensive, and it costs us $400,000+ a year to run. Most of the money that we make goes straight back into the property.

Of course some of the sheep are going to dye from heat exhaustion, it gets to 45+ celcius here in summer, and it's impossible to keep them cool when their covered in WOOL.

I would love to see some evidence of these sheep being "inhumanly treated" from birth, we do the best we can to keep these buggers alive so we can get money from them!

So, instead of boycotting our bloody wool, hows about they help us out and send in some help? I'm sure they can bloody afford it! I'de love for one of them to come to where I live for a while and see how they cope. Maybe then they'll change their minds.

Phew.

laura

hello, as an aussie, i agree with much of what peta is saying, although much of it is completely wrong -or mis-informed. the actual issue that marc bouwer took issue with is with lamb mulesing, which is when lambs tails are cut off. Now this practise may not be the most humane, but the alturnative is fly-strike, which is when the tail gets gets maggots in it, which then spread to the rest of the body and the lamb is literally eaten inside out, taking days and days to die, unless taking out of their misery. Until there is a viable alternative (work is currently being done by the CSIRO i think), this is the most humane way.

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Designers Boycott Aussie Wool

Designers Boycott Aussie Wool - Comments

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