A couple of weeks ago,
my husband and I came upon this billboard, the size of a small house, while on Burnside Avenue in Portland
Oregon.
“I’d rather go naked than wear wool.”
“What! No,
Alicia Silverstone, it’s FUR, not wool.”
I was wrong. She meant wool.
“What’s wrong with wool?” I go out of my way to find wool clothing, and
wool socks are the best.
Well, Silverstone is objecting to the inhuman
treatment of animals, in this case,
sheep.
HEY, I LOVE ANIMALS! I use wool because it does not kill the animal, but neither do I want them harmed. I know that
sheep are quite docile and if a
handler is gentle; the sheep will lie
there quietly during the shearing process. SO, FOCUS ON GENTLE HANDLING!
If you harm the animal you lose your job. Period. Isn't that more plausible than to stop using wool?
If you don’t shear sheep they will turn into a mass of burrs tied up in a fur-ball. And remember, they grow a new coat. That’s the nature of wool. If you stop buying wool, farmers will stop raising sheep, and all those cute little lambs will not be born.
When I was a kid,
we lived on a rural property in Oregon, and we
had a beautiful grey cat with abundant long fur—not a good idea in the country.
He turned into a mat of fur as though he was wearing a rug, so one summer we clipped him. And underneath we
found that he had foxtails (the barbed seed of the foxtail plant) stuck in his
skin under those mats. Without those fur mats, that interfered with his fur washing, and
foxtails that stuck into his skin like needles, he frolicked like a kitten.
And he stopped traffic.
We had sheared him like a lion with a furry mane
and tip of fur on his tail.
But then, naked Silverstone got people’s
attention. Including mine.