Comments on: Eco-friendly wool yarn for green knitters

By: Siel

Siel — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:14:36 +0000

I disagree with that too — but I’ve come to understand that the “meat is murder” folk generally can’t be swayed with logical arguments, so perhaps we can agree to disagree here.

By: Erica

Erica — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:36:06 +0000

I should have been more clear that I meant living and sentient beings.

By: Siel

Siel — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:48:51 +0000

People may be good and kind; corporations much less so. Therein lies the problem.

I totally disagree with this — “Any time that a living being is considered property, then cruelty is inevitable.” I own the chard on my balcony garden, and this is not leading to inevitable cruelty.

By: Erica

Erica — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:29:50 +0000

Any time that a living being is considered property, then cruelty is inevitable. I knit with cotton mostly but have also tried yarn made from the by-products of tofu production.

By: Maria

Maria — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:08:59 +0000

I was anti-mulesing when I first heard about it, then I did some research on it. I think the thing to understand, in response to the people in the wool industry, is that, just like everywhere else, people are mostly good and kind. You will have a few bad eggs, but your average person is not going to be cruel.

I do wish that anesthesia and analgesic were the standard.

One way to guarantee cruelty-free fleece is to contact sheep ranches personally. You can, with some, “adopt” a sheep and get that sheep’s fleece (unprocessed, washed, carded, spun, etc.) for a year.

You can also contact mills to find out about the herders and find out if they use pain management when performing it. A push from consumers towards using anesthesia for an effective (and eco-friendly, as compared to the plastic clips–maybe they can develop biodegradable ones?) management of flystrike might be what it takes.