In the interest of profit animals are dispatched by the cheapest methods possible, which are usually also the most crude, and cruel, e.g., anal electrocution, poisoning with weed killer, and soffocation or braking their necks. In Australia and other countries it is not the bloody fur trade they have to combat, its the wool industry. This unnatural overload of wool causes many of sheep to die of heat exhaustion, as well as of exposure to cold and damp after late shearing. Farmers employ this practice because the bloody wound when and if it heals three to five painful weeks later, will pull the skin tight and prevent moisture and urine from collecting in the Merino's skin. Sheep are violently pinned down and often cut from the rough shearing that is inevitable when speed means money.
Farmers use a hot tar compound to seal the wounds.
Farms use computer controlled shearing machinery that holds the sheep's face in a clamp, and a sensor directs a shearing comb that cal fail to circumvent teats and other protrusions. Silk, many people think of it as natural, not realizing that farmers boil or steam the silkworms alive in their cocoons by the thousands. It has been well established that silkworms can feel the pain. Down, it is the feathers of ducks and geese. Most down in pillows, parkas and comforters comes from birds who have endured a life of preparation for the slaughterhouse.