Cashmere production involves millions of goats across Central Asia and China, raising important welfare questions about shearing practices and grazing management.
Cashmere production welfare encompasses both individual animal welfare and the environmental welfare consequences of overgrazing. At the individual level, shearing cashmere goats - particularly when done by machine or out of season - causes stress, skin injuries and cold vulnerability. Hand-combing during natural molting is welfare-superior and produces higher-quality cashmere, but is more labor-intensive. At the landscape level, the tripling of cashmere goat herds in Mongolia over 30 years has devastated grassland ecosystems on which wildlife and traditional pastoral culture depend. Sustainable cashmere certification programs address both dimensions, requiring animal welfare standards alongside stocking density limits.