Mulesing is the act of slicing off a dinner plate amount of skin from the rump of a Merino sheep lamb. Mulesing is often done when the lambs are weaned, and only to those lambs that are going to be kept for breeding, not those going for slaughter. The lambs are lifted into a holding cradle which holds their legs and puts their rump into the air. The skin is pinched together and without any pain killers, or antiseptics (both of which cost money) the skin is sliced off. The lambs are released to heal, which may take four months - some will suffer from stress, infection, or tetanus.
This practice is almost exclusive to Australia (with a bit done in New Zealand) and in the Merino sheep breed, as they tend to have more skin around their rump which, when woolly, can become covered in feces, and attracts flies. The flies can be a real problem, laying eggs on the rump of the sheep, which hatch out to maggots that will eat the sheep alive, killing it, this being known as Fly Strike.
Mulesing is the cruel, and cheap, way Australian farmers deal with the problem of fly strike.
Crutching is a better alternative but needs to be done yearly. Crutching involves shaving the wool only from that area, prior to shearing the animal later in the year.
Tail Docking also helps reduce problems with fly strike.
To Read More, and find out where to complain, please visit:
What are Mulesing and Crutching
Live Export Shame
cruel and disgusting.
ReplyDeleteif manunkind would utilize the energy it took to actually come up with this, and channel that energy into something positive,we would have a real world to live in.
but then, that would not be human, would it:(
For heaven sake just use a hair breed and fly strike is non existent due to no wool.
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