When we witness cruelty to animals on factory farms or in shearing sheds, it’s easy to lay blame on the workers. Of course, anyone who punches sheep in the face with metal clippers or kneels on their necks with their full bodyweight should be prosecuted.
However, the wool industry as a whole – including shearing sheds, slaughterhouses, and live-export ships – doesn’t protect human rights, either. It’s within systems of human oppression that cruelty to animals is able to flourish.
Read the articles below to learn about working conditions in woolsheds, perpetrator-induced traumatic stress in the wool industry, human rights violations experienced by crews on live-export ships, and wool’s colonialist legacy, which still endures today.
