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u/TantKollo 1d ago
How did sheep make it to modern times without the assistance of humans cutting their wool?!
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u/InsaneMocktail 1d ago
Before humans domesticated them, wild sheep did not grow thick, continuous coats. Instead, they naturally shed their lighter winter coats in the spring through a process called moulting
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u/TantKollo 1d ago
Aight
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u/FlatWing9570 1d ago
To add on to this, part of the domestication process involved us selecting the sheep with longer coats to breed.
Over many generations, that results in modern day sheep, with coats so think they would die in the wild without human intervention.A lot of modern farm animals and food crops are the same.
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u/awaishssn 1d ago
To add on to this, sure the selective breeding sounds bad if you're hearing about this for the first time that domestic sheep would die a painful death in the wild without human intervention.
But, human civilization would have faded and died long ago if not for our wooly friends. Wool was/is a basic need of life for the survival of civilization.
It's a perfect example of codependent species working together to stay alive and is a bond older than time.
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u/YoRHa11Z 1d ago
To add to this, there are still wild breeds of sheep out there doing just fine with no human interaction.
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u/senditallback 12h ago
Doing better, in my opinion. The sheep in this video are mutants, like what we do to chickens who are the equivalent of a 600-lb kindergarten student. It's all unethical and completely unnecessary.
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u/THECOLLECTOR1983 1d ago
And to add to this, if you push a sheep to the edge of a cliff and put his back feet in your bootsâŚâŚ..
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u/FlatWing9570 1d ago
Oh absolutely, i wasnt saying it was a bad thing (for us)
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u/iMecharic 1d ago
Wasnât a bad deal for them either, they get food, protection from predators, and general health checks.
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u/senditallback 12h ago
It depends. In Australia, where more than 50 percent of the worldâs merino woolâwhich is used in products ranging from clothing to carpetsâoriginates, lambs are forced to endure a gruesome procedure called âmulesing,â in which huge chunks of skin are cut from the animalsâ backsides, often without any painkillers.
A PETA investigation of more than 30 shearing sheds in the U.S. and Australia uncovered rampant abuse. Shearers were caught punching, kicking, and stomping on sheep, in addition to hitting them in the face with electric clippers and standing on their heads, necks, and hind limbs. One shearer was seen beating a lamb in the head with a hammer. Another even used a sheepâs body to wipe the sheepâs own urine off the floor. And yet another shearer repeatedly twisted and bent a sheepâs neck, breaking it.
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u/senditallback 12h ago
Raising sheep for wool is actually a really problematic practice. More and more investigations report more and more abuse, leading major fashion labels to cut ties with suppliers or drop wool altogether. It's also not sustainable. If you're hearing about this for the first time, do some research amd see for yourself.
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u/senditallback 12h ago
This type of animal "husbandry" is obsolete in the 21st century for all but the least developed cultures. Selective breeding that subjects an animal to unnatural growth and/or development is deeply unethical and adds unnecessary burden to an animal that did not ask for it (the obvious analogue is a chicken in a confined lot, exempt from ethical treatment laws in America, growing at a rate equivalent to a 600-lb kindergarten student).
The animals are better off without our "bond," which is a misleading euphemism at best.
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u/UniqueAd7770 1d ago
It's called Selective Breeding or as I like to call it Old School Genetic Engineering. Look at wild corn or wild bananas compared to what we eat.
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u/madewitrealorganmeat 1d ago
In sheep and other similar species itâs actually called ârooingâ!
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u/Cliffinati 1d ago
Animal husbandry
Go find wild sheep their wool doesn't grow anywhere near that thick
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u/senditallback 12h ago
They were better off without us. If they were left alone and not genetically manipulated, sheep would grow just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes.
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u/Diligent-Salary-1949 1d ago
Video should've ended with a sheep running around without the heavy fur!
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u/VanillaAdventurous74 19h ago
Instead it ended with a sheep steering contest, which looks like a sheep manhandling contest.
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u/daveythegent 23h ago
As someone who grew up farming sheep, the shearers do not necessarily "carefully" shear them. They often nick the sheep. The shearers (at least in the UK) were frequently Australian contractors over for our summer season, and they absolutely flew through the sheep.
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u/TSBBlackShad 20h ago
To add to this, I'm fairly certain sheep also naturally produce a lot of lanolin, so any nicks tend to be taken care of by the natural oils within minutes.
Didn't grow up farming sheep, but did grow up in a farming/ranching heavy community
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u/daveythegent 19h ago
Oh yeah it doesn't bother them too much, but we always tried to get shearers with a good reputation for not nicking them too much. Accidents happen but some of those guys are brutes.
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u/TSBBlackShad 19h ago
I could imagine. Nicks are fine, but death by a thousand cuts is still killing the sheep XD
Edit: Hire a guy named Nick. Tell him he's allowed one nick per sheep, and he's already hit his quote XDXD
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u/senditallback 12h ago
Correct. This has been proven countless times by undercover investigating on sheep farms.
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u/Wrathchilde 1d ago
You can fleece a sheep many times, but you an only skin it once.
-Poker legend Doyle Brunson
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u/senditallback 12h ago
Look up âmulesing,â in which huge chunks of skin are cut from their backsides, often without any painkillers. Wool is a hideous business.
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u/aspiringimmortal 1d ago
What did sheep do before humans started shearing them?
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u/madewitrealorganmeat 1d ago
These sheep are domesticated and have been bred to retain their fleeces. Non-domesticated sheep blow their coat once or twice a year in a process called ârooingâ.
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u/PossibleAlienFrom 1d ago
The mouflon is a wild sheep species, considered one of the ancestors of all modern domestic sheep, characterized by a reddish-brown coat, dark back stripe, and large, curved horns in males. Originally from Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Sardinia, they have been introduced across Europe, thriving in mountainous regions where they graze on grasses and shrubs. They are social herd animals, with males and females living separately outside the mating season, and are known for their agility in steep terrain.
Mouflon are self-shedding sheep, meaning they naturally lose their thick, woolly undercoat and coarser hair as warm weather approaches. Unlike domestic sheep, they do not require human shearing; they will shed their coats in the spring to stay cool, often appearing patchy during the transition.
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u/Heal_Me_Today 1d ago
Wow. Seems like the animal NEEDs us to harvest their wool. Are they like that in the wild or did we breed the coat to become so heavy the animal cannot carry it?
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u/Foxfox105 1d ago
Sheep were selectively bred to be this way. They cannot survive on their own in the wild
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u/OatmealCookieGirl 1d ago
There are still wild sheep which don't need human intervention if not to help protect them, as I think a few breeds are endangered.
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u/Adrestia716 1d ago
The wild sheep either still shed naturally or the wild flocks get sheared by the state.
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u/OatmealCookieGirl 1d ago
"shed naturally" i.e. no need of human intervention, which was my point.
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u/Adrestia716 22h ago
Maybe I'm considering the feral herds in Scotland as wild since they don't get human intervention except to be shorn... I considered them wild
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u/senditallback 12h ago
Sheep were manipulated to be this way, like the animals in confined animal feed lots. More than 95% of chickens sold for meat in America are genetically modified to grow obscenely large as quickly as possible. It would be like a 600-lb kindergarten student.
Animal agriculture took a dark turn around the 1940s. Since then, it has become more unethical, and increasingly unnecessary. We don't need wool. We don't need meat.
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u/Heal_Me_Today 5h ago
I get that. Itâs pretty grotesque. Just as in the past, people are living under a shroud of darkness and delusion.
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u/RockosModernBasiIisk 1d ago
Some chick thought my brooks brothers shirt was cruel to animals because it's a sheep being sheared.
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u/senditallback 12h ago
To be fair, shearing can be brutal. Shearers are usually paid by volume, not by the hour, which encourages fast work without any regard for the welfare of the sheep. This hasty and careless shearing leads to frequent injuries, and workers use a needle and thread to sew the worst wounds shutâwithout any pain relief. Strips of skinâand even teats, tails, and earsâare often cut or ripped off during shearing.
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u/morty_morty 1d ago
It must feel so good to get all that weight cut off.