Anyone thinking that the wearing of wool isn't an issue of concern should visit here [http://www.savethesheep.com/] and learn why Peta are campaigning against Australian wool due to the way they treat sheep. Mulesing, in which huge chunks of skin and flesh are cut from the animals’ backsides with shears, without any painkillers, is routinely carried out on lambs by Australian sheep 'farmers' as a 'treatment' to avoid maggot infestation, the skin scabs and eventually heals, but doesn't grow wool because it's scar tissue. The reason why sheep are vulnerable to maggots is because they are not indiginous to Australia and shouldn't be there, but were imported by the white man at a time when moving species from one continent to another was viewed as a good idea, it made money and still does.
New Zealand is also guilty of this gross animal abuse. Peta are targeting Benetton because so far they have ignored requests to boycot Australian wool, yet Pakistan’s Bonanza Garment Industries and India’s Mohini Exports have joined PETA’s international boycott of Australian wool until lamb mutilations and live sheep exports end. So, who's developed? Certainly not United Hypocrites of Benetton.
Timberland has made the decision not to sell products that contain Australian wool until mulesing mutiliatons and live exports stop. The live exports are due to Muslims wanting animals bled to death while fully conscious, a nasty, ignorant, deviant practice that the UK has been sucked into, due to the PC Multiculturalism lobby and the vociferous, bullying nature of Muslim immigrants who refuse to adopt the culture of their host country, where animals' welfare has been a hard fought battle, which has now been turned on its head with Hallal meat even being served to all our armed forces to avoid any chance of the tiny number of Muslims in uniform ingesting non-halal.
So Australian sheep are shipped thousands of miles on open-deck, multitiered ships through all weather extremes and with nothing to drink, , crammed in and mired in their own excrement, and eventually slaughtered by having their throats slashed and the hung upside down to bleed to death while fully conscious to satisfy the aberrated mindset of religious halfwits.
An example that alternatives to wool are possible here [http://www.petabusinessfriends.com/suigeneris.asp]. Of course, the best alternative to wool is hemp, which can be treated and spun to a wide variety of fibres and is better than wool on a whole range of criteria such as insulation properties, and useful life, it's also better for the planet and can be recycled into other garments or even paper eventually. [http://www.hemptraders.com/properties.shtml]
Also on the subject of animal abuse is this site [http://www.iamscruelty.com/] exposing the practices of Iams, a leading [US] manufacturer of dog and cat food. Most people don't know that Iams funds research on animals which would appall them if they knew. The dogs and cats in Iams’ tests are no different from our dogs and cats at home when it comes to deserving companionship, play, a stimulating environment, and the right not to be tormented in painful experiments: dogs gone crazy from intense confinement to barren steel cages and cement cells, dogs left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs; dogs surgically debarked; horribly sick dogs and cats languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer with no veterinary care.
Iams are the manufacturers of Eukanuba. I hear that Iams will provide refunds to people who request one on the grounds that they object to Iams’ laboratory tests on animals. So anyone who has unknowingly bought their products can return them to the pet store for a full refund. You may also wish to tell the pet store owners you'd rather they didn't stock it, and write to IAMS to let them know what you think of them and their practices.
