Karakul or Qaraqul (named after Qorako‘l, a city in Bukhara Province in Uzbekistan) is a breed of domestic sheep which originated in Central Asia. Some archaeological evidence points to Karakul sheep being raised there continuously since 1400 BC.

Hailing from the desert regions of Central Asia, Karakul sheep are renowned for their ability to forage and thrive under extremely harsh living conditions. Karakul are also raised in large numbers in Namibia, having first been brought there by German colonists in the early 20th century.

Use by humans
Karakul sheep are a multi-purpose breed, kept for milking, meat, pelts, and wool. As a fat-tailed breed, they have a distinctive meat. Many adult Karakul are double-coated; in this case, people separate the coarse guard hair from the undercoat. Karakul is relatively coarse fiber used for outer garment, carpets and for felting.

Karakul pelts
Very young or even fetal Karakul lambs are prized for pelts. Newborn karakul sheep's pelts are called karakul (also spelled caracul), swakara (coined from South West Africa Karakul), astrakhan (Russian), Persian lamb, agnello di Persia, (Italian), krimmer (Russian) and garaköli bagana (Turkmen). Sometimes the terms for newborn lambs' and fetal lambs' pelts are used interchangeably.

The newborn lambs have a tight, curly pattern of hair. The lambs must be under three days old when they are killed, or they will lose their black color and soft, tightly worn coils of fur. Dark colors are dominant and lambs often darken in color as they age. Fetal karakul lambs' pelts are called broadtail, breitschwanz (German), and karakulcha. People use the lambs' pelts to create various clothing items, such as the karakul hat. The pelts have been used in haute couture.

As if peddling the skin and fur of a tortured, electrocuted adult animal weren't bad enough, some heartless designers take fashion cruelty to a whole new level with a particularly grisly "killer" look: astrakhan, also known as "broadtail" or "Persian wool" - the fur of newborn and fetal karakul lambs who are bred by the thousands in Central Asia for the bloody fur trade. 

Because their unique, highly prized curly fur begins to unwind and straighten within three days of birth, many karakul lambs are slaughtered when they are only 1 or 2 days old.

The rest don't even make it that far. In order to get a karakul fetus's hide - called "broadtail" in the industry and valued for its exceptional smoothness - the mother's throat is slit and her stomach slashed open to remove the developing lamb.

A mother typically gives birth to three lambs before being slaughtered along with her fourth fetus, about 15 to 30 days before it is due to be born.

As many as 4 million karakul lambs are slaughtered for their fur every year.

The fur industry tries to justify karakul lamb fur as a byproduct, but with a single karakul lamb coat selling for up to $12,000 and "broadtail" fetus coats fetching as much as $25,000, it's little surprise that the mother sheep and her baby's skinned carcass are usually regarded simply as trash. 

And who's profiting from such disgusting cruelty?

Designers Ralph Lauren, Karl Lagerfeld, Fendi, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Jean-Paul Gaultier use astrakhan, and Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's sell it on their own racks.

But fashionistas with a heart aren't buying it. Claudia Croft, fashion editor of the Sunday Times Style Magazine in London recently called astrakhan "the cruelest and most vicious fur."

And "Material Girl" Madonna hasn't been seen in her astrakhan coat since designer pal Stella McCartney scolded her for "wearing a fetus."

taken from the INVESTIGATION REPORT of the Humane Society of the United StatesMoments later two workers enter the room hauling a pregnant ewe by her front and back legs.

Graphic footage captures how she is slaughtered. There is no stunning, no attempt to use any “humane slaughter” techniques.

The ewe is flopped onto the floor and held down on her back. She kicks with her legs in a vain attempt to flee. One worker controls the lower half of her body by stepping on it with his foot.

The butcher makes a pass at her throat with a long knife. Her legs continue to kick as she struggles. The butcher slashes her throat once again, this time deeper. A fountain of blood gushes onto the floor around her. The butcher then twists her head all the way around, until it comes off in his hands.

Approximately two minutes after the sheep’s throat was cut, the workers picked up the now headless body by the legs and placed it on a wooden cradle-like structure…

Vigorous movement in the dead sheep’s abdomen, evidently the unborn lamb kicking, is visible in the videotape…

Workers pushed on the sheep’s abdomen several times. There was no further visible movement. About thirty seconds after the movement in the sheep’s abdomen stopped (or was no longer visible), the workers shackled and hoisted the sheep’s body and started skinning it…

After the skin was removed… another worker tore open the uterus and pulled out the lamb, holding it up for us to see. The worker then tossed the lamb [fetus] onto the floor and we left the kill area.

12HSUS investigators were next taken to an area where the “wet” (unprocessed) pelts are salted and laid out in the sun to dry for several days.

After they are skinned, the tiny carcasses of fetal and newborn lambs are disposed of as excess matter, too meager even for food.

To read the entire report please follow this link: http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/fur/karakul_report.pdf