What these people don't understand that if we wouldn't harvest wool, milk, meat and skins from sheep there wouldn't be any sheep. They wouldn't be just running around wild like deer. They wouldn't go more than a couple of generations in the wild after thousands of years of cultivation and selective breeding.
Some of that selective breeding - some of the best of which was done in Britain by a man called Sir Robert Bakewell - increases the fleece in terms of size and quality so that it is a relief to the sheep when it is shorn. If it were not shorn, it would have to moult it and they cannot do that any more as this is also bred out. They are happy when they are shorn, although admittedly the first time they will put up some resistance because they don't know what's happening, but an experienced shearer will minimise their distress by doing a rapid and confident job.
During their lives they require almost daily human interventions by the farmer and regular ones by the vet.
They are numerous because they are farmed. They are farmed because they are a great way to turn land that will only support grass and nothing much else to feed and clothe people.
When I can digest grass myself, and clothe myself in it, then I can afford to have sheep around just for decoration.
Some of that selective breeding - some of the best of which was done in Britain by a man called Sir Robert Bakewell - increases the fleece in terms of size and quality so that it is a relief to the sheep when it is shorn. If it were not shorn, it would have to moult it and they cannot do that any more as this is also bred out. They are happy when they are shorn, although admittedly the first time they will put up some resistance because they don't know what's happening, but an experienced shearer will minimise their distress by doing a rapid and confident job.
During their lives they require almost daily human interventions by the farmer and regular ones by the vet.
They are numerous because they are farmed. They are farmed because they are a great way to turn land that will only support grass and nothing much else to feed and clothe people.
When I can digest grass myself, and clothe myself in it, then I can afford to have sheep around just for decoration.