Passionate about Angora goats
Recently a grossly misleading report was published about the cruelty to goats which in due course will be proven to have been willfully constructed for purposeful advantage of alternate groups.
The immediate impact was significant and unfortunate but in all such instances the revelation of the truth will eventually outweigh the harm it caused. The truth always prevails; already the noise level by groups carrying misrepresented messages on cruelty to goats has waned.
Social media has numerous advantages but equally it is a platform to easily spread biased and false information for personal gain. Without the opportunity of debate it is understandable that readers quickly adopt a binary thought process and opinion.
What do we mean by a binary evaluation of social media reporting? There are a multitude of impacts in any decision; good leadership carefully evaluates all outcomes and decides on a balance of benefit vs. compromise.
Any cruel treatment of animals is inexcusable and cannot be tolerated, but when there are significant consequences of a report it is incumbent to validate the data knowing the harm that any false or biased information would cause.
For example, did you know that if Angora goats were not shorn that there coats would grow that long that they risk to be caught up in the thorn bush of their habitat, suffering a painful and drawn out death.
Did you know that the mohair industry creates thousands of jobs for rural communities who risk increased poverty if the only industry they know failed them?
How many farmers do you know? Of these farmers do you know any who do not take care of their animals or who do not love their animals? What is the logic in farmers being cruel to animals on whose livelihood they depend? To be a farmer you must have a love for nature and animals.
A perspective that I avoid making for risk of misinterpretation or purposeful misinterpretation is that commercial value contributes to saving animal species. Would there be sufficient purpose to keeping and caring for animals (not pets) if they had no commercial value? I am not aware of adequate donations from the keyboard activists needed in the absence of commercial value to save species.
At Alles Mooi we love our animals and our planet. We care for our animals and our planet. We know that the first time shearing experience of a kid goat can be unsettling so we take special care of the kids in this first “shear”. Would it be proper not to shear a goat because the first shearing could be a little traumatic? Would it be proper not to take a child to the dentist because it would be traumatic?
Recent ambassadors for mohair socks are people that originally were misled by false reporting that goats were cruelly treated. They were overwhelmed by guilt of assuming that reports were accurate and for not giving consideration to the overall impacts that they now voluntary promote mohair products.
If you ever doubted the existence of false reporting then take time to google and read how Britain’s most audacious public relations firm was contracted by the Gupta family to spread racial tension in South Africa in order to distract attention away from them and onto their many enemies. False reporting purposefully destroyed the reconciliation of a nation that took place in the 20 years preceding.
There are many reasons to love wearing mohair products, not only the overriding benefits and features of mohair, but that natural products are beneficial to our planet and our animals. It is not in our make-up to comment on the impacts of synthetics and the plastics pollution; whether or not oil companies are sponsoring activists; or the water needed to grow cotton because we simply do not know all the facts.
Loose lips sink ships. It is important to future generations that those responsible for false and willful misreporting are held accountable for their actions. What messages do children take from growing up without learning that their actions have consequences?
A final word on disingenuous reporting. At the end of Apartheid in 1994 I believed that it would take 2 generations to put aside those injustices and to live in harmony. Seeing the reach that a few persons achieve on social media playing the racist card for their personal gain makes me doubtful about the future of a country and people that I love so much.
