Liberals Protest Abortion -- Of Lambs

One of the hottest fashion trends is the use of astrakhan -- the wool of newborn or fetal karakul lambs -- by top designers and their imitators. Animal rights terrorists activists are outraged, and engaging in various forms of protest.

It is already provoking a backlash. Anna Wintour, the British editor-in-chief of American Vogue, was attacked when she turned up at a Lagerfeld show in a lamb’s wool jacket dyed pink. A woman shoved food in her face and shouted: “That’s for all the little animals.”

The week before, activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) took over a window of Prada’s flagship store in Milan, smearing themselves with blood and carrying slogans declaring “Death for Sale”.

Yeah, those are certainly productive activities. Assaulting someone because you don't like their clothes is a crime. So is trespassing and vandalizing private property.

And then there are the agonized words of this UK Humane Society official.

Rick Swain, an investigator for the Humane Society of the United States, visited a karakul farm in Uzbekistan posing as the owner of a chain of boutiques, making a video of what he saw. “I insisted on seeing the slaughterhouse,” he said.

“We could hear what sounded like the cries of lambs as we were led into this 20ft by 20ft building with hooks in the ceiling.

“The floor was covered with blood and there were carcasses of dead baby lambs.”

And then there are the complaints of this PETA staffer.

Sean Gifford, Peta’s director of European campaigns, said: “The fur trade is a violent, bloody business but these skins are particularly gruesome.

“Upwards of 4m lambs are slaughtered every year for these coats. A ewe can usually have four births in a lifetime. The first three lambs are slaughtered after they are born.

“But the mother is butchered 15 to 30 days before giving birth to the fourth lamb. The unborn lamb is then ripped from her belly. Its skin has not had a chance to develop so it is softer and more highly valued.”

You know, I'm not a big one for fur. I love animals. But I just can't get too outraged by this -- especially when liberals refuse to add their voices against the cruelty found in this sort of outrage.

A pliers-like instrument is used because the baby’s bones are calcified, as is the skull. There is no anesthetic for the baby. The abortionist inserts the instrument up into the uterus, seizes a leg or other part of the body, and, with a twisting motion, tears it from the baby’s body. This is repeated again and again. The spine must be snapped, and the skull crushed to remove them. The nurse’s job is to reassemble the body parts to be sure that all are removed.

Or maybe this one would trouble them.

According to nurse Shafer, the baby was alive and moving as the abortionist “delivered the baby’s body and arms - everything but the head. The doctor kept the baby’s head just inside the uterus. The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks he might fall. The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp.”

But somehow I doubt that they will join the chorus of condemnation of these activities. After all, the latter two only result in the death of human babies, not the much more imporant and morally valued karakul lambs of Uzbekistan.