Can I be Vegan and use wool?!

The poster with the heart symbol has no clue about the wool industry. So do not take advice from someone who sits too much in front of the computer than live real life!!

As you are posting in the UK I am assuming you are from the UK, farmers get so little for their wool that it actually does not pay, it costs far more to shear them and the price they get from the wool does not cover that cost. They would be more than happy to leave the wool on them but they do it because it would show cruelty!!

The reason why they do not keep the wool on them because it is cruel. The heart symbol poster above must be from the US and think they are the world!! In the UK no farmer in their right mind would shear in the spring and you can not actually shear sheep before they are meant to be sheared. When you shear them' there is a layer of new growth starts from the body and you will see new white growth and a line of yellow which is the old layer it is the new layer that helps you shear the animal. If it is all yellow there is no chance for the clippers to get through the wool to shear them so what this person has said is false!! They are left to be sheared at a later date.

Yes they do get cut but they do not in any way cut them open and allow for any sheep to be left to suffer. They apply iodine spray or tar which stops flies getting in. It is not in the best interest of the farmer to loose animals. Just because we are omnivores does not make us mindless thugs and inconsiderate. I have seen shepherds reduced to tears because their flock is suffering from the weather and can not get good grass in the spring for the lambs!! Leaving any sheep to die unessery is a loss to profit and above all cruel and unethical!!

As for taking a coat off that provides warmth well they naturally shed it anyway but sheep have been bread for us to use the wool. It does not fall off them, the top layer after a few seasons will come off but by that time the sheep would be what we call a double fleecer with many seasonal layers. It is actually bad for them and shepherds see this as a cruel act and a sign of bad husbandry!! A double fleecer will have mobility problems, the wool is very heavy when wet, they can get far easily caught in wire and barb wire, and as they are flock animals they will risk anything to get back to the flock even if it means passing a burn in which they will get bogged down and die to the shear weight of the coat.

The layers of wool can also hide problems like a maggot infestation, I remember shearing and animal that was so slow and had its head down and looked ill. Turned out after taking the wool off that it had maggots and we put it in a pen treated it and after a while brightened up.

If a sheep comes in late we do not shear them close to the skin we leave a coat to keep them warm.

The reason why most veg/vegan do not like it is due to the fact they spent most of their lives blissfully ignorant to how the world works then when they eventually find out they think they know it all by looking at a biased information!! They are still just as naive as they where before they knew about the animal husbandry!!

I would choose natural products than stuff that pollutes making it and getting rid of it. I am against fur of exotic animals but native people use reindeer, sheep, buffalo, yak etc etc to keep warm as they are plenty and the animal is used for far more other things. If you choose to use wool, stick to local produce even if it is a bit more expensive.

EDIT

Put it this way the amount of thumbs down I get will only indicate the ignorance in the world and prove my point!!!

Shepherd in the Scottish Highlands!!

By definition, vegans don't use any product that comes from an animal, so all those answer that say that because you don't actually "kill" the animal it is okay are just plain wrong.

No proper vegan would dream of eating or using anything like honey or dairy, neither of which involves the actual killing of an animal because it still exploits the animal, and in the case of dairy, and indeed wool, the animals are often kept in horrendous conditions. So if you are choosing to become vegan for animal welfare reasons, you are being hypocritical if you use wool, allowing some animal products and not others.

Why not just stay vegetarian if you with to keep utilising animal products? Then you can stop eating meat and products that have involved killing animals, and maintain your integrity.

Are you vegan because you don't use animal products, or do you not use animal products because you're vegan?

Where I'm going with this is, labels are used to quickly explain to other people who ask, rather than to define who you are. ("no thanks, no turkey for me, I'm vegan")

The real question is, are you comfortable using wool? If yes, use it. If no, don't. Stop trying to conform to some artificial rules and work out what -you- are happy with. That's far more important than being a 'good' vegan. In my opinion, etc.

Wool is an animal byproduct of course, but I'm not aware of any sheep that have been slaughtered to harvest their wool. Whether or not you're happy with using wool from sheep that have been 'kept' primarily for food is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

I went vegan for about a year and it felt good, I loved being a vegan but I decided that it was quite hard and I wasn't mentally strong enough to give up milk and eggs. You should try it and decide yourself if you can do it or not. Vegans do not use wool as it is an animal bi-product. There is acrylic wool that you can buy instead if you want to continue to knit. It does the job and wool products from most clothes shops are made from acrylic wool. Its just as good except man-made. :)

hope i helped xx

vegan for a year and vegetarian now

You can grandfather in the wool that you already own. You can still be a vegan as long as you don't buy any more real wool. Some vegans, will get rid of all their non-veg clothes, but you don't have to. If you're doing it for environmental reasons, it's actually better to keep the non-veg stuff you already have, than to go buy everything new.

vegan

i think that it would be fine to keep using wool. Many vegans don't use it, but sheep at a small organic farm are not going to be hurt, and they need their wool taken off for comfort. And don't worry about following all the "rules" of veganism, just do what you think seems ethical.

longtime vegan

It's your own choice. If you want to use wool, use it. You don't have to do waht everybody expects you to. Some vegans agree with wool, others don't. So you can choose if you agree with it or not, research it on the internet or read the posts above mine.
As long as you don't mind, yes you can use it.

I think it's absolutely fine to still use wool if your a vegan, as you say, sheep are not killed for their wool - they are sheared to keep them cool in the summer.
I wouldn't stop doing something you enjoy just because something you use was once on an animal.

Wool is not included in a vegan lifestyle because a vegan lifestyle excludes all products of animal exploitation. Go ahead and use the wool you have on hand--you bought that before you went vegan anyway, right?--and then use cruelty-free yarns after that is gone.

You can be a vegan and use wool, yes. You're just a different stage of veganism than those who don't use wool. Same as vegetarians who eat fish, and those who don't. Can't remember what the name is now though...

Yes, being vegan does not mean that you can not use wool. That is just ridiculous. Such a notion is unheard of. As long as the animal is not harmed that is the concern.

Hi M, You are already trying to justify your actions by saying no sheep are killed in the making of woollens, so i think your mind is already made up. You carry on knitting - I've known so called vegans who wear leather shoes. All the best. Rab

Hello

I would say use your own judgement, people are too harsh to condem others. You are doing a great thing by being vegetarian/vegan anyway ok.

I think you should give the wool to a friend who also knits and buy vegan materials.

Vegan

go ahead and use the wool you have on hand till you run out and continue to buy the imitation wool.

no you cant use real wool. that is an animal bi-product. use hemp.

As long as you don't eat the wool, then yes. You can be vegan and still use it. There are lots of reasons to become vegan, but the primary ones are for health, or for moral reasons. If you're doing it for health, then it's a non-issue. If you're doing it for moral reasons, then the fact that sheep aren't killed by the process and generally aren't treated badly should be enough to make you feel better. Some vegans insist that animals are equal to humans, and that therefore any human use of animal products or labor is immoral. I hope I don't have to explain how silly that is. The jury is still out on the great apes, but for most animals, as long as you don't make them suffer or take them out of their natural environment for no good reason, you're fine.

Eat what makes you happy. Knit with wool if it makes you happy. Maybe I am not extreme enough, but I don't feel it is worth causing problems. That doesn't mean you can't still have principles.

I live in a farming area. Everyday I see the cruelty to the animals. For various reasons (and I realise I am unusual here), going completely vege would make me ill. So I am vege as much as I can be, vegan as much as I can be. But where I can't be, I've stopped letting it upset me. Of course it bothers me seeing the animals suffering, but I have had to accept there is a limit to what I can do about it. When there are any campaigns to improve the welfare of farms animals, I am the first to sign up. I try to buy locally produced animal products where the animals are killed more humanely in a small local abattoir. But if the sheep are being killed I feel it shows a lack of respect for them to NOT use their wool. If a caring farmer wanted to he could just produce wool sheep that could live for years. However, the price the farmer gets for wool is so low that that just doesn't happen now. In fact, the wool on meat sheep is sometimes even thrown away, worse even when the farmer has to pay for its disposal. So knit with your wool, and respect those sheep who died to make lamb chops.

You can. Or you can't.

You really don't have to put labels on yourself. If you want to be vegan and use wool, then go ahead. It all depends on your morals and what you think.
Some may argue that it's fine since you aren't hurting the animal, but others may beg to differ by saying that you are exploiting the animal. It really depends on what kind of vegan you want to be. Don't listen to people saying you shouldn't be vegan or vegetarian or use wool, as a human being you have the choice to do whatever you want to do.
If you love to knit, then knit.
If you love to knit with real wool, then knit with real wool.

However, you said it was more expensive anyways to get real wool, so you should take that into account. But, you still have some left over, do you want to waste?

The animals don't get hurt through the process, they don't even feel it. It's even good for them to keep their coats short in the summer, as you pointed out. But, it is YOUR CHOICE.

The wool industry is very cruel to the sheep. You are lying to yourself if you think they shear the sheep out of the goodness of their hearts...because it's for their own profit. When they shear the sheep they do it too quickly, often cutting the sheep and causing them to bleed quite badly...not to mention the pain of being man-handled and cut open.

Sheep are sheared in the spring, just before they would naturally shed their winter coats. Because shearing too late would mean a loss of wool, most sheep are sheared while it is still too cold. An estimated one million sheep die every year of exposure after premature shearing.

When the wool production of sheep declines, they are sold for slaughter. Millions of lambs and sheep are exported for slaughter each year. In Australia they have to travel long distances before reaching very crowded feedlots, where they are held before being loaded onto ships. Many sheep die in the holding pens.

Another problem with sheep shearing is that the shearers are not paid by the hour, but by volume. They handle the animals very roughly and a lot of sheep get injured.

I wouldn't expect you to get rid of the wool you already have, but if you bought more you would definitely be a hypocrite. You even said yourself that the imitation wool you buy is cheaper.

Vegans don't purchase anything that is made with animal products and they don't believe animals are ours to do with them as we please. If you don't agree with that, perhaps you're not vegan material

Don't worry about it. Vegans are hypocrites anyway. If you think no animals die so you can eat your vegetables you are mistaken. Farmers kill rodents all the time that are eating their crops. Face it, animals are used so you can live. Some die so you can live.

If all these "animal rights" people devoted the time and money they spend on their "animal rights cause" to the real issues of human suffering they would help contribute to making this a better world.

Don't become a vegan, I was and it just made me miserable stressed and ill. Vegans don't eat or use anything that had a face so the means wool as it was on a sheep that had a face. I love knitting too, it is not worth giving up to become vegan

DONT BE A VEGAAAN
YOU CAN GET REALLY SKINNY AND SICKK
AND ITS JUST WOOL YOU ARENT EATING IT JEEBUS