2007_08_01_archive

Ethical wool

There is a British company producing wool garments, Izzy Lane, that is

actually doing good to animals. So, if you like wool but don't want to

contribute to the exploitation and abuse of sheep, here is the

solution. In the words of the founder, Isobel Davies, in her interview

to London's Sunday Times Magazine, "The more successful our clothes

are, the more sheep we can save."

This is because Isobel Davies, former member of the indie band Edith

Strategy and now 45, had the idea of starting a label selling knitwear

made with wool from sheep rescued from slaughter.

She became a vegetarian at 17 when she first met a vegetarian and

discovered that it's not necessary to eat meat. "From that second,"

she says, "I never touched it again."

The idea for the label Izzy Lane originated when Davies discovered

that British farmers were discarding the wool from slaughtered sheep

while Britain imports wool from Australia and New Zealand. She thought

of using British wool and at the same time saving animals from the

meat market.

So, now, whenever they hear of sheep going to be slaughtered, her

company Izzy Lane buys them. They buy sheep destined to the abattoir

for being male, lame, too old, or having "blemishes" like black spots.

Her flock of Wensleydale and Shetland sheep is now living happy lives

(if not treated like breeding machines, they can live for 15 years or

so) in their Sheep Sanctuary. In July, when they shear them, the sheep

"are relieved to be rid of their fleeces and seem rejuvenated", as

Davies put it.

Isobel says on her company's website izzylane.co.uk: "As a

longstanding vegetarian I have always been confronted with the

argument that sheep would not exist if we didn't eat them. Izzy Lane

hopes to demonstrate an economic model whereby sheep can exist, be

valued and have a place in our world without becoming meat. It offers