Sheep and Wool

Australia is the world’s biggest producer of wool, accounting for around 45% of world production of apparel wool and predicted to produce 330 million kilograms of shorn wool in the year 2009-10.¹  China and New Zealand are also major wool producing countries.  The UK produced 30 million kilograms of shorn wool in 2009.²

Wool production is unavoidably linked to the meat industry. Sheep are farmed for both their wool and their meat:  the sheep whose wool is taken will inevitably end up on someone’s plate.³  Many of the lambs produced yearly by ewes kept for wool will be sold straight for meat.  Some wool is taken from slaughtered sheep, known as “skin wool”.⁴ 

In the UK, several million lambs are subjected to painful tail docking and castration without anaesthetic every year.⁵  Lambs will show signs of pain for several days after being castrated.⁶   Lameness due to foot rot is a major welfare problem in UK sheep flocks and is considered an unavoidable part of sheep farming.⁶ Many of the lambs born into the industry do not survive their first few days of life - lamb mortality is around 15% in the UK.⁷  The process of being sheared is stressful for the sheep.⁸

Australian sheep are commonly subjected to mulesing, a painful procedure where flesh is cut out from their tail area without anaesthetic, to discourage flystrike (maggots attacking the sheep’s flesh).⁸  Despite the existence of less painful methods of prevention mulesing is still inflicted on many merino sheep, which has led to some major British manufacturers boycotting the use of Australian wool in their products.⁹  Some sheep from Australian flocks may be killed during droughts if there is not enough water and food to go around.⁸ 

Lanolin is a grease which is secreted from sheep’s skin and extracted from wool.¹⁰  It is mainly used in cosmetics and to produce vitamin D3, which can be used as a food additive or in supplements, sometimes only labelled as ‘vitamin D’.  (‘Vitamin D’ may refer to either to D2 or D3.  D2 is the form of vitamin D that is suitable for vegans.)

Global wool production has declined by 44% over the last 20 years¹ and represents only 3% of world fibre production.⁴  With so many plant-based and synthetic fibres to choose from, there really is no need to take wool from sheep.¹