Sheering a sheep?

Question

ok so when someone sheers a sheep isnt that just like shaving it or do they have to kill the sheep and use the skin.........

also i was wondering how many sheep it takes to make a pair of uggs, b/c someone said on hear that it takes 8 and if that is true then i am never buying uggs again

Answer 1

When you shear a sheep you clip its fleece off.  They use a thing like a barbers clippers.  This makes it look a lot thinner.  It then grows another lot of wool.

Answer 2

Sheering a sheep, consider it a close shave hair cut, the sheep feels better and stays cooler in the summer.  It take a full year (for most breeds) to grow their fleece back and the sheep is happy to have it removed once a year.  Most  wool breed sheep, the ewes (girls), get to live a long and productive life.

Not all sheep are wool breeds (the ones that get shorn) some are for meat.  Meat sheep are process at 10 to 11 months of age (anything older isn't worth eating). So not to waste anything, which would be shamefull, the hides are turned into everything from seat covers to uggs.

Waste not.

Answer 3

no they dont kill a sheep to sheer it, its just like getting a haircut, the wool grows back.

No it doesn't take 8 sheep to make 1 pair of uggs. I know that the thought of uggs, coming from sheep skin is not nice, but if you really think about it too much, theres things such as leather shoes, come from cows, leather couches, chairs jackets etc, are all animal products.

there is one thing to remember, the animal is going to be eaten anyway, and the skin is just a by-product, why not make use of it instead just throwing it away.

The sheep is not killed for the skin rather it is killed for the meat and the skin is just put to use. So don't think that by you and others not buying Uggs you are saving any sheep because you are not, if the farmers/butchers/resellers, cant use the skins because people are refusing them, then the skin will just become landfill, and in the end the sheep still are slaughtered for the meat anyway.

Answer 4

The shearer sits the sheep on it's hindquarters between the shearers legs.  This allows them to control the sheep with their knees.  They then do the 'belly blow' (shear the wool off the belly) and then progress to the rest of the sheep.  They use electric shears like those electric hair trimmers.  Each stroke is called a "blow" and they have to be careful so that the fleece comes off in one piece, not in broken chunks of wool.  The fleece should stick together a little bit.  Then the fleece is 'classed' or checked for dirt, faeces, and quality, and baled.

To make sheepskin, yes the animal is killed.  So buy fake uggs.  It'll be cheaper.