Duwamish

Eco Facts

As with all our wool fabrics, they are non-mulesed. What is non-mulesed wool? One of the animal husbandry issues unique to sheep is the practice of mulesing. Sheep which are raised in certain climates (as much of Australia) are susceptible to a condition called “fly-strike.” What is fly-strike? A certain type of fly, called blow flies, lay eggs on sheep’s back legs when the sheep are less than clean. When the flies hatch, these maggots burrow in any slightly raw or inflamed area and literally eat their victim alive. To control this condition herders “mules” the sheep, which means cutting away large swaths of the skin on their hindquarters and back legs that is susceptible to the borrowing maggots. Mulesing is traditionally done without anesthetics, and is inhumane. Our wool is from tiny ranchers in Uruguay, who have never needed to mules sheep as fly-strike is unknown in Central and South America.

Another note about wool: We are aggressive animal rights people, but we do offer a few wool fabrics. Yes, we have had the small ranches in Uruguay surprise checked. We also believe that hooved animals are a critical part of carbon neutral or positive farming. We do know we are far from that ideal!