Sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated by humans, around 10,000 years ago, for the purpose of using their wool, flesh, and milk.

Their wild ancestor, the mouflon, grows a denser coat during winter, which naturally sheds in summer, just like other wild animals. However, over time, domesticated sheep have been genetically selected to produce much more wool than they actually need, all to satisfy market demand.

There is a widespread belief that shearing sheep is as harmless as a simple haircut. It is assumed they do not feel pain or suffer.

Shearing sheep, far from being a harmless practice, represents a form of systematic subjugation and exploitation of animals that feel and suffer. Sheep are not mere wool producers: they are sentient beings with emotions and social bonds. However, in the wool industry, they are treated as objects, reduced to their economic value and stripped of any recognition as individuals.

During shearing, sheep are roughly restrained by workers aiming for speed and efficiency. Electric machines with sharp blades are used, which often cause cuts and deep, painful wounds when they come into contact with the skin. These procedures are carried out using force, immobilizing the animal, which struggles to escape, terrified. Often, they are pushed violently, with no regard for their physical or emotional integrity.

Australia, the world’s largest wool producer and one of the main exporters to Spain, legally allows a practice known as mulesing. This surgical procedure involves removing, with a knife, part of the skin around the sheep’s anus to prevent flystrike, a serious infection caused by fly larvae that feed on animal tissue.

Genetic manipulation has caused sheep to develop multiple skin folds to increase wool production, which also creates areas conducive to flies laying their eggs.

Mulesing is performed when lambs are just a few weeks old, without the use of anesthesia or painkillers. Although its purpose is supposedly sanitary, mulesing can cause intense pain, acute stress, and behaviors associated with suffering, such as abnormal postures, loss of appetite, or distress vocalizations. Physically, open wounds can take weeks to heal, exposing sheep to infections.

In Spain, other common practices in the wool industry are also allowed, such as tail docking and castration, procedures which, like the former, are often performed without anesthesia.

Regardless of the initial reason for their exploitation, all sheep raised in this industry will be sent to slaughter. In the case of lambs, they are slaughtered at 9 months old solely for their flesh. For the rest, it is the quality of the wool that determines the timing of slaughter. Thus, most sheep are killed between 5 and 6 years of age, well below their natural life expectancy, which is around 15 years.

Nowadays, there are many alternatives for clothing and warmth that don’t involve wool, such as organic cotton, plant-based fabrics like hemp, and recycled materials, among others.

If it’s not necessary to use products that cause suffering to animals, why not stop doing so?

Work by  Ariadna Creus and text by Helena Rivera and Ariadna Creus. Sources: Ariadna Creus and My Vegan Closet

Published in July 2025