How About Sheep? "Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn! You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into a giant oak! Bury a sheep, and nothing happens but decay!" —George Bernard Shaw "Don't let what you can't do interfere with what you can do."   I have never understood how sheep made it on the "clean" list at all. Since I have raised sheep and have had them for many years, I think I am qualified in making the following observation. Sheep are the most unsanitary creatures I have ever known, not even remotely as cleanly as the naturally tidy pig . Their wool is saturated with urine and manure, inviting all manner of flies and maggots. And because of the shape of their mouths, they can and do eat the grass down to the roots, also eating the worms and other parasites just waiting to be invited into a nice host. Perhaps it is because of this that they also succumb to virtually any little sickness or disease that comes along. According to the USDA, there are 7,500 sheep right now in the U.S. that have scrapie [the sheep equivalent to BSE]. In fact, the USDA discontinued the compulsory scrapie eradication program because it would be perceived by the public that it [spongiform encephalopathy] was a threat to health. Modern Manna, Volume 3 Number 1, pg. 18.   This should be understood and treated as a serious threat to public health! Although it has little to do with your diet, let me add this point. While sheep desperately need to be sheared every year for their own health, money has made this a most barbaric occasion. For years I had no idea what really happens in the wool industry and naively thought that everyone would do it as carefully and patiently as I did, but unfortunately I was woefully uninformed.   While sheep are prized for their wool, the skin folds are in the way of hasty shearing procedures, so the folds are lopped off in a procedure called "mulesing," during which they are given no anesthetic to ease the excruciating pain. Because of how fast the sheep are sheared, they frequently lose ears, parts of their faces and other body parts. They are fully conscious for the process and are not given any medical treatment for their injuries.   After a few years (if they survive that long) of this torturous treatment, they are crowded into cargo ships without food or water and shipped to Africa or the Middle East, where they do not have animal cruelty protection laws. Many never survive the long trip. As atrocious as it is, those who don't make it are perhaps fortunate. Once landed, the sheep are used in brutal ritualistic ceremonies, being dismembered, skinned and then slowly bled to death.   There are many ethical fabrics readily available that are just as good, some even better than wool, which can be used instead of encouraging this opprobrious exploitation of God's animals (see resource list). "Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscience, thus helping to bring the collective conscience to life." —Norman Cousins All rights reserved Copyright © 2006 By J. Lee