ARGENTINA AND HORROR IN ITS WOOL SUPPLY INDUSTRY
“All creatures are deserving of a life free from fear and pain”
-Maura Cummings
Animal cruelty nowadays is getting more and more transparent. It seems that people who have committed those kind of crimes are not punished in the right way because the public is not enough aggressive to fight for a justice. Animals can’t speak and they can not express verbally their trauma but all of us who see it or hear it, we are their voice and we are those who speak out for all of them, for all voiceless.
There is no hope for any society to become human if there is no place for animal rights and set of regulations against animal abuse. Animals are not the property of people and the greedy industry that misuse domestic and wild animals for the sake of profit is nothing but a devil’s nest. The absence of any ethical standards regarding the treating of animals is showing the absence of humanity in our times. Today they cut off the paws of the stray dogs, tomorrow the same sadists will cut off the ears of our children. The sadism is always silent but persistent.
According to the latest reports of PETA, the situation for sheep in Argentina is almost like a folklore of the movie SAW. Terror, pain, blood and death. No mercy for the innocent. The video has exposed the farms in the system Ovis 21 and the way they handle the poor sheep. It is beyond imaginable that lambs are skinned alive while some sheep are abused, mutilated or simply neglected. Just for a wool. But, the tragedy is bigger than the money they are hoping to get because the PETA has informed the whole world about the shameful practice of Argentina.
Whats happening over there ? The butchery. The limits of professional ethic do not exist anymore, all what we can find there is an absolute failure of empathy and sadism. The same line of terror against the sheep has been exposed in the U.S. and Australia too but now Argentina shows its own face of evil. The wool industry can not work without blood and torture. Every company worldwide that claims opposite is not honest and try to operate its business, having a fear from the global condemn and financial fiasco. The controversial Ovis 21 has supplied the famous brands like Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Brioni, Christopher Kane, Gucci, Volcom and Saint Laurent but after the massacre has been published, the company has been isolated and its offer on the market has been ignored, especially by the Patagonia Inc., outdoor clothing company.
The sheep are very sensitive animals and their family feelings keep them even more disturbed when one family member is hurt. Separating mothers from children and torturing the both is the schedule of the real monsters:“Workers picked up gentle lambs and—while they were fully conscious—tied their legs together, plunged knives into their throats, and sawed through their necks. Blood poured from the wounds as they kicked with their only free leg. Workers then snapped their heads backwards, apparently trying to break their necks.Even after all that, some of the lambs still managed to cry out and gasp.Minutes later, some lambs were still alive and kicking when a worker drove a knife into their legs to start skinning them. Eventually, they were hacked apart. Their organs were carved out of their bodies and their severed heads dumped into a bloody tub.All this happened in full view of other lambs. They were just feet away and cried out in what must have been terror and severe distress. Older sheep—used for their wool, then no longer wanted—were lined up, tackled, and dragged away to be shipped to slaughter.”
That is a scenario of animal cruelty in Argentina, in one of the famous farms that deliver the wool used for our clothes. I believe that any human being, with the pure heart, would rather pick up the synthetic or animal friendly materials for a whole life than knowing that innocent lives are gone just for a so called feeling of comfort in wool. There is no humane wool, all you get it is a wool taken from the animal in very cruel way just to support your sick need for quality.
With the advanced technology and progressed thoughts of society we live in, someone would expect that the criteria of humanity will be higher and the respect for all forms of life will be sign of spiritual development of one community. Unfortunately, we are everything but not the humans. We exploit the nature, abuse the animals and kill each others without any break. Then, we are daring to be proud that we are ready to colonize the other planets. I am not sure we deserve anymore to exist on this planet, on the Earth we have killed long time ago.
The wool industry in Argentina is not sustainable and responsibly sourced, it is colored with the blood of innocent animals that have nothing to do with your real needs to survive. Because, honestly, you do not need wool to survive and you do not need the thousand of animals to be killed for your pathetic feeling of being dressed in good quality. It is not about your life, it is about the death of your moral.
The only solution is global ignorance of wool suppliers and their exposure in social media.Their dirty business must be shown to the public and their appetite for inhuman treatment of animals must be presented as shameful and must be prosecuted. As long as we negotiate with indifference and close our eyes for the suffer of innocence, we will be more and more stuck in the silence not only of lambs but also the silence of our souls.
https://www.change.org/p/u-s-senate-stop-slaughter-of-sheep-in-argentina-for-wool-supply
SARAH MAX RESEARCH 
Thank you, Sarah, for a very touching article. The absence of humanity nowadays is reflecting the absence of God in our hearts as humans. Do we need to use and buy wool? And if we did, do we need to torture the animals to get their wool? There are many cruelty-free wool substitutes such as cotton that work even better than wood to keep us warm, comfortable, and make us look good.
The sheep, goats, rabbits, and all animals can’t speak and express their pain, and deserve a voice like yours Sarah. We thank you very much for exposing such evil practice, we thank you keeping us always informed, and we thank you for raising your voice on the animals’ behalf.
May God, bless you, and guide you and all of us to what pleases Him. Amen.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In particular, it is Sarah’s articles that are associated with animal rights that move me most of all among her excellent journalistic expressions. Like Sarah, I am an animal rights activist and my affinity with animals emerged during my childhood, in the countryside of The Antipodes. Sarah’s poignant article reminded me of the history of the Merino sheep in The Antipodes:
The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. The breed originated in Spain, but the modern Merino was domesticated in New Zealand and Australia. Today, Merinos are still regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep. About 70 native sheep, suitable only for mutton, survived the journey to Australia from England with The First Fleet to Botany Bay, in 1788. By 1810, Australia had 33,818 sheep.
In Australia, mulesing (i.e. the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech [buttocks] of a sheep to prevent fly-strike [myiasis]) of Merino sheep is a common practice to reduce the incidence of fly-strike. It has been attacked by animal rights and animal welfare activists, with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA, a North American animal rights organization based in Virginia) running a campaign against the practice in 2004: fashion retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Gap Inc. and Nordstrom and George (UK) stopped stocking Australian Merino wool products.
In 2008, mulesing once again became a controversial issue in Sweden, with a documentary on mulesing shown on Swedish television. This was followed by allegations of bribery and intimidation by Australian government and wool industry officials. Several Western European clothing retailers (including H&M) stopped stocking products made with Merino wool from Australia.
The wool around the buttocks of the sheep can retain feces and urine, which attracts flies. The scar tissue that grows over the wound does not grow wool. So, it is less likely to attract the flies that cause fly-strike. Mulesing is a common practice in Australia for this purpose. It is considered by some to be a skilled surgical task; although, it is often performed by unskilled persons. Mulesing can only affect fly-strike on the area cut out and has no effect on fly-strike on any other part of the animal’s body.
The Australian Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ARSPCA) accepts mulesing when the risk of fly-strike is very high, when it is done properly, and even then only as a last resort. PETA strongly opposes mulesing; stating that the practice is cruel and painful, and that more humane alternatives exist. PETA claims that sheep can be spared maggot infestation through more humane methods; including special diets and spray washing.
There is little national animal welfare legislation in Australia. Most animal welfare regulations/laws are at the state and territory level. In 2016, Australia received a D out of possible grades A,B,C,D,E,F,G on the World Animal Protection’s Animal Protection Index.
Each year, between 520-620 million animals are killed in Australian slaughterhouses; including 5-7 million sheep and 17-19 million lambs. Many more animals die on farms; including an estimated 15 million lambs who die each year within 48 hours of birth, due to inadequate protection from harsh weather.
The majority of these animals (around 500 million annually) are farmed intensively, in Australia. De-beaking, de-toeing, tail-docking, tooth pulling, castration and dehorning of livestock without anaesthetic are not illegal, nor is confinement in veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages.
In 2014, Australia surpassed The United States of America as the world’s highest per-capita consumer of land-animal meat (i.e. beef, veal, pork, chicken, mutton and lamb), at 90.21 kg per person. This figure has been rising over the past two decades, up from 77 kg per person in 1979.
According to Humane Research Australia (HRA), approximately 7.3 million animals were used in scientific and commercial research and teaching in Australia, in 2015; up from around 6.5 million in 2004. This included 333,922 sheep. HRA notes that there is no national collection of animal use statistics, and that these are ‘very conservative’ figures. In 2016, following HRA and the Humane Society International’s Be Cruelty-Free campaign, the Australian government pledged to ban testing cosmetics on animals and the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals. No law has been passed by the Parliament, as yet…
Animals Australia is an organization whose activities include public advertising on issues related to farm animal welfare, undercover investigations of animal farming operations, and corporate outreach. Their corporate campaigns resulted in cage-free egg commitments from McDonald’s and Subway.
Animal Liberation is an Australian animal protection group founded in 1976 whose mission is ‘to work toward the end of suffering of exploited and confined animals, through legislation, consumer advocacy, action and humane education’. Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) is a particularly active branch which has conducted highly publicized open rescues of farm animals, and protests against animal farming; including blocking transport trucks and ships, and vegan education. Their recent activism includes a release of undercover investigation footage showing the painful deaths of pigs killed by carbon dioxide in Victorian slaughterhouses in late-2015, alongside activists chaining themselves to slaughterhouses.
As Sarah’s imperative and invaluable article exclaims, we must all co-operate without condition on the absolute universal dissolution of cruelty to animals:
‘Most of the more complex emotions are common to the higher animals and ourselves. Animals not only love, but have the desire to be loved. The lower animals manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as lambs, when playing together, like our own children.’
– Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Excellent exposure and coverage of a critical subject ! Thank you so much, Sarah !
This has been so educational and I can avouch for it ! It is so sad and so deplorable that “humans”‘ exploit animals and how they find the worst possible way of implementing it !
It is as if “humans”‘were trying their best to find a way of torturing animals and then killing them ! Not that I am encouraging it, but one would think that there may be a way of getting the wool without hurting the poor Lambs ! This is so remindful of the milk industry that discards Calves and kills them just so that they can get all the milk from the Cows ! Unfathomable !
As I was reading your article, Sarah, I grimaced in pain so many times because of the cruel and sadistic way those poor Lambs are treated ! Further, I literally had to avert my eyes from some of the illustrations, as they are so graphic !
You have definitely exposed and conveyed the cruelty of this industry in Argentina ! You have also stated that the same horrific industry exists in the U.S. and Australia ! How sad and how deplorable !
This industry has to come to an end, and it will, thanks to our relentless fight for the voiceless ! We shall be their voice and shall never flinch !
Thank you again, Sarah, for all your hard work to protect those poor and voiceless Animals ! The Animals, all Animal Lovers, and I are beholden to you !
LikeLiked by 2 people
STOP THIS CRUELTY AGAINST ANIMALS NOW. THIS IS SO NOT DONE.
LikeLike
Terrific writing on arbitrary topics. Im trying to
currently
accomplish something such as what you have here except on
a different topic totally. Thank you for the inspiration to
write better content.
LikeLike
I had fashioned to leave a comment, man do I’ve a
difficult time writing
a blog. Im aiming to kick start one on my website and I
have to say
its not easy at all. I do admire people like yourself
who are
able to reveal anything easily. Keep up the good work!
LikeLike
thank you for sharing with us, I conceive this website genuinely stands out : D.
LikeLike
Aw, this was a really nice post. In idea I would like to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and precise effort to make a very good article… however what can I say… I procrastinate alot and on no account seem to get one thing done.
LikeLike