Childhood indoctrination

[Aractus]

I know about flystrike and agree that it is a worse fate than mulesing. This only strengthens the position that sheep farming is inhumane, particularly in a climate to which they are not adapted, where they have no natural resistance to parasitic infections. Farmers can never cure their herds of infections, only "manage" it, and when they are intensively farmed at high stocking densities, they are subjected to very high worm burdens.

And yet you choose to ignore one entire side of the argument. I just explained to you that wool is a harder wearing textile than cotton or synthetic fibres and this makes it far more environmentally friendly for certain applications. Yet you didn't even respond to this.

Superfine Merino wool is viewed as a "luxury" item and has a certain economic status associated with it, and it is perhaps this issue that is the greatest barrier to abolishing the trade.

Merino wool comes from a certain breed of sheep. No doubt that diet plays a role too, but I haven't heard of the intentional starvation of livestock as playing a role, thus I take your claim with a grain of salt.

Because you say so? Merino wool with a fibre diameter of <22 microns is considered desirable, and will fetch the highest price in the market. Feeding trials have been done that show a positive correlation between feed intake and fibre diameter. We have terrible droughts here in Australia which inhibit grass growth; do you really think a farmer will care if the sheep go hungry for a few days, as long as they're still standing and producing wool? Our sheep herds are very large (in the thousands), shearing cuts are real and cause a disease called caseous lymphadenitis. If shearers process thousands of sheep in a day, it is not feasible to manage individual wounds effectively.

No, because you dismissed an entire part of the argument without even responding to it. You chose not to discuss the benefits to the wool fibre, and instead only want to talk about what you see as the "humane" and "ethical" side of the argument. And do I think that farmers care about the wellbeing of their livestock? Yes I do - what kind of farmers do you know that don't??