Shearing My Winter Coat
Obviously I don’t have a wool coat in the same way that sheep have a wool coat but before today I did have a number of wool sweaters. I know, I know. You’re asking ….”why do you have wool sweaters if you’re vegan?”
A farm sanctuary lamb rescued.
My vegan life began a little over a year ago when I heard Gene Baur speak about Farm Sanctuary. After that talk, I went home and decided not to eat any animal products after finishing the ones that remained in my pantry and my refrigerator. It didn’t take long to eat the little dairy I had in the fridge but it did take me a couple months to finish all the cookies and other dried pantry products that had dairy or eggs in them. Since then I have not purposefully consumed food that comes from an animal in any way.
I guess I looked at my closet in the same light. Just as I didn’t feel that it was right to throw away a block of cheese the day I decided to become vegan (because that would mean the cow had suffered for nothing) I did not feel right about throwing away my wool and leather clothes. So I continued to wear the ones I had and consciously made a decision not to buy any new clothes made of animal products. But I think the time has come for me to take one greater step into this vegan world free from animal torture. It helps that it’s spring and in Arizona that means we are living in beautiful, balmy 70-to-80-degree temperatures! I will have no need for wool or leather for several months … or in fact a lifetime. I have a case of spring fever and one of spring fever’s symptoms is a urgent desire to clean out every closet in the house!
Early this week I decided to medicate my spring fever by attacking my closet. It is big and packed to the brim. Cleaning it out is not a task to be taken lightly. Clearly parting with clothes is difficult to me. I don’t know why. I attach memories and emotions to my clothes. In my 20s I traveled to many parts of the world. In each place I stopped, I bought a local souvenir, usually some clothing like Alpaca sweaters from Cusco, Peru. Those sweaters remind me of the people in Peru, the good times I spent with my friends, and living in a naive world not knowing the suffering of animals used for clothing. Things were less complicated then.
A sheep after mulesing.
That’s the thing about opening your eyes to animal cruelty. You can never go back. You can never not know that most sheep used for wool have their tails docked and their balls chopped off without anesthesia. You can never not know that sheep undergo mulesing, a painful process where the “shepherd” cuts a four by six-inch piece of skin from their tails and backside. You can never not know that sheep used for wool eventually don’t produce enough and end up in the slaughterhouse just like ever other animal used for human consumption. For these reasons I can no longer look at my wool sweaters without seeing beautiful sheep that have suffered for my warmth and frivolous fashion desires. It is time for me to let them go.
So I am. They are all packed up in paper bags to be donated to a charity. I hope that someone else finds use for them because they are still valuable. While I feel that I am taking a giant leap forward by shearing my winter coat of wool, I can’t help but feel slightly sad as if I’m sending some sheep off to slaughter one more time beause they are of no use to me. And yet I know that’s not true. What matters more is that I am now committed to living the rest of my life as a smarter consumer who chooses clothing that has nothing to do with animal suffering.