Lee Pitts: House Calls

PETA has declared victory in their battle over fur and now they want to go to war over wool. I guess no one has told PETA that you don’t have to kill a sheep to get its wool like you have to kill a mink to get its fur. PETA wants folks to wear only “vegan wool” but isn’t it already?

PETA is going after wool because they say there’s a great deal of abuse and inhumane treatment in harvesting wool and I’d agree with them 100%. You see, I was a part-time sheep shearer in my younger days and I gotta tell you, shearing sheep was the hardest work I’ve ever done and my body took the most abuse of any job I’ve ever had. To the sheep it was like getting a haircut but to me it was like being in a big washing machine in the spin cycle for three hours.

PETA says that when sheep are sheared there is a lot of punching, kicking and beating going on and that’s true. While in all the years of raising sheep I never beat, punched or kicked a single sheep but shearing just a small farm flock of 30 ewes felt like going 15 rounds with George Foreman. If PETA really wants to do some good for society they ought to form a sister organization to one called PETSS, People For the Ethical Treatment of Sheep Shearers.

My shearing business consisted of making house calls that typically went something like this.

“Thanks for coming on a Sunday to shear our five ewes but its my only day off.”

“That’s okay. How did you find me?”

“I called the guy who sheared my sheep last year. He says he quit the business right after he sheared our sheep last year.”

“Well, where are these sheep you want me to shear?”

“Oh, they’re still out to pasture. I’ve got the flu and thought you wouldn’t mind gathering them for me. Before we begin how much do you charge?”

“Well, it’s like the sign at your local mechanic’s shop. If you serve in some sort of an advisory capacity it’s five dollars per head and I get to keep the wool. If you don’t help it’s only two dollars per head plus the wool.”

You’d have thought I slapped his mother. “Are you kidding? That’s outrageous! If you keep the wool I won’t be able to get the wool subsidy from the USDA.”

“Well sir, I had to drive an hour to get here, I’ve already wasted an hour gathering your sheep plus I think I sprained my ankle jumping over those rusted bedsprings in your pasture. I may also need a tetanus booster.”

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