Musings on Mulesing ....

Many listeners will have heard a feature on the Radio 4 "You and Yours" programme on Monday 9th August discussing Mulesing.

What is Mulesing?
This is an inhumane and cruel practise used to prevent fly strike to sheep in Australia. For more exact details we suggest you read more on the internet, but it involves cutting off the skin around the tail, causing severe scarring and the prevention of natural regrowth of wool. It is widely used in the production of Merino wool in Australia and many consumers may not be aware how much Australian wool is used in the clothing industry and, of course, the bedding industry. There has been much campaigning to stop it but a deadline of 2010 for phasing out Mulesing in Australia is now thought to be unrealistic.

Mulesing is not practised in New Zealand and consequently products can be bought, used/worn /enjoyed with a clear conscience. There we are, even more reason to support the New Zealand wool industry... as Kiwis are fond of saying "forget the mozzies, let's squash the Ozzies" - sums it up really!

One Good Turn Deserves Another

Back in July we received, entirely unexpectedly, a consignment of goods destined for a shop in Rotorua, New Zealand ... it had arrived in our most recent container hidden amongst an Order for Lanolin Skin Care. It was marked up for Rotorua and I telephoned Nicky to say how far it had travelled and express surprise that it had ended up in the UK! It certainly helped solve a mystery as Nicky had been wondering where it had disappeared to.

The long and short of it is that we have been rewarded with some Lanolin Hand and Body Wash which we will be taking with us to our stand at Burghley Horse Trials in September - it is always nice to have something new to display and little stories like these restore faith in human nature. It is the same reason that we deliberately choose to supply small family run shops- they tend to have traditional values and conduct their business in ways that we feel comfortable with.

Our family holiday is now almost on the horizon- whilst we are away we are very much hoping for the safe arrival of "Wellington" - for more news of the new arrival at White Cloud Trading you might need to look at previous blogs ... we are all hoping he survives his long journey and is happy in his new adopted country!

Natural Therapies for dogs and cats

How can dogs and cats benefit from sleeping with magnets?
At White Cloud we have an increasing number of enquiries from pet owners. Mostly these are customers who have purchased a Magniwool Underblanket for themselves and have noticed a distinct improvement in their health and wellbeing and would like something similar for family pets.

Magnets work by improving blood circulation; the iron in the blood is stimulated by the action of the magnets and this really does result in improved levels of health and mobility. We are now developing a range of Magniwool Cushions specifically for pets. The outer cover is washable high quality gingham and the cushion itself is protected by a washable inner cover.

Will my pets like sleeping on the cushion? Yes! We now have a number of customers whose animals will sleep on nothing else! They seem to naturally choose the cushions over and above any other bedding and these are pillow sized so can be used in most situations ...