Shouts From Down Under

Read this at your own risk. Shearers are NOT cruel thanks.

Be warned. Graphic descriptions in this blog.

For anyone who may wonder about the cruelty in shearing sheds, and the claims made by PETA. I haven't watched their videos on this, but I feel concern that people may be shown a biased viewpoint, exaggerated, claiming that all shearers and farmers are like this. Well, I can tell you first hand. That's not right.

Why do people do a bulk judgement on folks and be ready to believe any old story, and base their judgement on one or two incidents?

Have you ever been to a farm for any length of time? I'm not saying just a brief visit when everything is rosy and running well. Try living on different farms of varying financial status, and especially those not so profitable.

But I challenge you. The majority, yes I say majority of farmers and farm workers all over the world care for their animals more than themselves. They would rather go hungry than leave the animal hungry. They hate cruelty. They abhor maltreatment of animals.

Yes, of course there are those who would abuse, I'm sure of it. Some people have no idea what their actions, or lack of, do to animals or people. Economical burdens can twist people's perceptions of right and wrong, and have them justifying all sorts of things just to make ends meet.

Well, why strip ALL people of the right to farm, the right to care for animals properly (and a lot better than people who have grown up in the city reading textbooks and earning degrees however well intentioned) ?
Why take away or stop another profitable industry because of some? Why not stop the "some"?

No, it's about stopping humans doing anything. That's what I feel is the agenda. Growing up on the land can give you a narrow view of things. I understand that. But to claim that all shearers or farmers are cruel is just plain wrong.

Ever see a farmer or his wife tend a sheep that has been hiding away somewhere, out of sight on the farm, because it's flyblown? Ever seen the tears in the farmer's eyes? Ever hear the lump in his throat when he pulls back the matted wool (unshorn of course) to reveal what maggots do to a sheep skin?
Ever seen meat that has been tenderised ready to barbecue? Raw, bloody meat. And the smell is just what it will soon be. Death. Rotten teeth and sewerage combined with week old milk left out of the fridge.
Then, because the poor sheep has been unable to get up, weak from infection etc, the crows come and peck it's eyeballs out. Yes, while it's alive. It is now in excruciating pain, and blind.

So, while there may be some cruelty, humankind is here to stay, sheep are here to stay, and must be shorn. To claim shearing is cruel, and ban it would be a terrible mistake. The ones who will ultimately pay are the sheep themselves.

This is doing the rounds on Facebook at the moment:

**PLEASE SHARE**

There is a big argument going on about what happens in the sheep shearing industry.....and it's threatening to shut the wool industry down!!
Animal rights people (PETA) have posted videos of a couple of people doing obscene cruel things to sheep, no one on the shearing worldwide site can identify these people, so we are yet to confirm if this was staged or not!
The video has gone viral and has resulted in people all over the world refusing to buy wool including major fashion designers.....which could result in thousands of job losses in the shearing/farming industry and affect our country's welfare!
The shearing industry's not perfect, there's an "ugly duckling" in every industry unfortunately, I mean we don't go shutting schools down completely because a teacher was inappropriate! We get rid of the individual!!
Here is a video of how sheep should be shorn and handled, this is taught to shearers/farmers all over the world a lot of money and training goes into this!
Please share this for anyone who thinks that all shearers act like the ones in the horrific video that's gone viral!

There's a video of shearers doing their job the correct way but I couldn't copy the link very easily, so I found a similar video on YouTube that shows how it should be done.



I've learned to shear and crutch sheep myself when on the farm, my dad is a retired shearer, my brother used to be a gun shearer (fast and efficient), and my nephew has just won an award for speed shearing in a competition in Dubbo, a country town in the middle of New South Wales, Australia.

I've spent months working as a shed hand in the shearing sheds around our local town (Coonabarabran) but also as part of a team employed by Farmers Grazcos, a company at the time doing contract shearing.
In this situation, there would usually be 4 to 6 shearers, 2 or 3 roustabouts (shed-hands), an overseer, a woolclasser, a woolpresser, a general hand who mostly doubled as an expert (repairs any breakdowns with the equipment + grinds the combs and cutters if requested by the shearers), and last but not least important, a shearers' cook.

What usually happens from start to finish with sheep shearing, is first up, the farmer rounds up all the sheep from his / her paddocks into one yard next to the woolshed, or if there's room, in the shed itself. This way they stay dry if it rains. You can't shear sheep when they are wet. It's not healthy for the shearers and, hey presto, it's bad for the sheep. They can get cold after shearing and die. Also, if there's a cold snap in the weather this can happen, so the farmer has to be a bit cluey.

Common sense rules here people. If the farmer was cruel to the sheep, or if his shearers were, it adversely affects their growth and quality of produce, thus profitability. I have never heard of a farmer being happy with less money, but I've heard of plenty of farmers, and shearers, and towns folk, and city folk all being very angry, and sad, about cruelty to animals.

Sometimes I think, what it really is with people, organised groups of them who try to stop others from doing legitimate things, is they like to control others. They don't like people to have freedom, to not have to ask permission, to be trusted that they would abide by the rules of common sense and decency, laws of loving kindness.
No, they like to feel in control of everyone, and then justify it with blanket hysteria. Well, that's my view just now.

So, you have the sheep shedded, and you leave them overnight. They are fine that way. This allows them to go to the toilet, and the floor of the shed is built off the ground, with slats so that the sheeps droppings fall through. Every so often they are cleaned out by the farmer, and used to fertilise the paddocks so that more grass grows for the sheep. Grass loves sheep poo. (I'm spelling all this out here, and I'm sure most people would get it already)

Next morning, the shearers arrive, unpack their combs and cutters, load their handpiece with sharpened ones, set the comb so it cuts the wool without "pulling", much like a barbers / hairdresser's clippers. See it? Another example of concern against cruelty, and it comes about by the simple rule that if the sheep is uncomfortable, it'll kick and struggle. No shearer or farmer wants that. It takes longer to shear each one, and you are paid per sheep.

Do the math people...

More $$ = time = no cruelty.

To be continued...

Sparky

Featured as part of my signature, the video below is here to raise awareness of Carly, who thrives despite the difficulties of severe Autism. Watching and learning about her may change how we think of these people, and how we treat them.