Whales and Wool: Celebrating Some Animals at the Expense of Others

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-08-27 06:58:00 UTC
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Whales fall into the category of animals whom almost everyone professes to love--they're beautiful, they're inspiring, they're grand, we say. And we are right to admire, respect, and want to save whales, but when we exploit and harm one set of animals to call attention to our harm to another set, I call irony. The players this time? Whales, sheep, and art.

A museum in Philadelphia is currently home to a life-size replica of a sperm whale--made of a remarkable 9,000 square feet of wool felt. Wool, as in that "fabric" we get by intentionally breeding domesticated sheep to carry terribly uncomfortable, heavy amounts of fleece--far more than nature ever intended--so that they can serve as living, walking factories for us, until we send them to the slaughterhouse.

The wool fact sheet compiled by the Israeli animal advocacy group CHAI is a good resource for more information on some of what we humans do to sheep, including how they are intensively raised, the mutilations they endure, the diseases, illnesses, and injuries they suffer because of the ways we use them, the cruel practice known as mulesing, and the frequent injuries and trauma that go along with rapid shearing--again, all before the sheep are ultimately slaughtered.

TreeHugger and the Art Blog conclude that the whale replica--which shows the average size of a present-day sperm whale (the whales were significantly larger in the past)--is supposed to get us to think about the ways we impact, dominate, and kill animals. But just how many sheep were bred, used, injured, traumatized, and ultimately killed to make this point? Whales and other ocean animals deserve our respect and admiration and protection, and we need to be aware of--and stop--the harm we are causing them. But also deserving of our respect, protection, and non-harm are the animals on land who are suffering at our request, for our clothes, for our food, even for our art.

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For information on the shearing of rescued sheep as necessary at sanctuaries, see this post from the shelter director of Farm Sanctuary.

Photo of artist Tristin Lowe's "Mocha Dick" courtesy Landmark Creations

Photo of Frances, a sheep rescued from slaughter, courtesy the Farm Animal Sanctuary of the UK

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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