zooophagous:

tigerskinsandotherthings:

carlvegandude:

Wool is not cool.

You realize this image has nothing to do with wool production, right? This is a sheep that wasn’t sheared for three years and his fleece became so thick and mattered it was causing him serious health and welfare problems;

The woolly mammoth was rescued by RSPCA inspectors after neighbours in Brooklyn, in Melbourne’s west, tipped them off this week. When discovered, he had not been shorn for three years and if his fleece got wet it weighed up to five times his body weight.

Ms Brown said: “His wool was very heavy. He really wasn’t very mobile and he got tired very quickly.”

Domestic sheep were bred to grow wool continuously and needed to be shorn yearly, she said. The excess wool could have led to health problems.

“The weight of the wool was putting extra pressure on his joints and he was having difficulty eating because he couldn’t move his head up and down. Sheep can actually get stuck on the ground if they aren’t shorn.”

(Source)

The injuries you see are due to how matted against the skin the wool had become, making it extremely difficult to shear. When done properly and regularly, shearing doesn’t cause the animal any harm. 

In essence, this is an image of why sheep need to be shorn regularly. Without shearing the fleece will grow to the point the sheep’s welfare is seriously compromised and it risks numerous health complications and potentially even death from overheating.

Out of all the stuff that actually hurts sheep like mulesing, they chose this photo.

Protip guys: if your cause is truly just you shouldn’t have to fake shit or steal shit to promote it. Instead of “don’t sheer sheep!” Why not work to make the life of a wool sheep better by furthering alternatives to stressful procedures like mulesing or other painful “necessities?”