Background on mulesing
Find out the facts about mulesing.
About mulesing
Mulesing is a vital part of sheep husbandry in Australia, particularly in reference to Merino sheep. It involves surgically removing the skin around the breech (backside) and tail to enhance the naturally bare area which reduces the risk of flystrike caused by a unique and very aggressive blowfly (Lucilia cuprina).
Mulesing involves the surgical removal of crescent-shaped pieces of skin from the breech and tail of lambs. As the skin wounds heal, the edges are pulled towards each other, causing a tightening of the remaining wool-free skin, reducing skin wrinkles and expanding the natural bare area of the breech. As a result, the breech area becomes less susceptible to flystrike due to reduced areas of urine and faeces contamination.
Without mulesing, blowfly eggs are laid in moist wool; the flesh eating maggots create painful wounds, causing the sheep considerable pain, stress and suffering and, in many cases, death.
A ban on mulesing would result in up to three million sheep dying from flystrike in years when conditions were conducive to flystrike – hot and wet. It would be exceptionally cruel not to mules sheep in Australia without an alternative being available.
Research clearly shows that mulesing and tail docking are currently the most practical, effective and humane methods of flystrike prevention available to Australian woolgrowers. It eliminates almost all breech flystrike in sheep.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Australia), the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) and the Australian Commonwealth Government accept the practice of mulesing as a necessary sheep husbandry procedure to prevent flystrike.
Documented studies have shown that this procedure does not cause long-term distress to the animals and infection is a rare occurrence after the procedure. The preventative procedure is only endured once by each sheep to prevent longer-term suffering caused by flystrike.
The decision to phase out mulesing
In October 2004 US-based extremist animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched a campaign against the Australian Merino wool industry over mulesing.
PETA’s campaign targeted international retailers and was supported by local animal rights organisations. It put the livelihoods of 50,000 woolgrowers at risk by placing the Australian wool industry in grave danger of losing vital international customers.
Proactively moving to combat this campaign, the Australian wool industry, with the support of the Australian Government, united to form the Australian Wool and Sheep Industry Taskforce in November 2004.
Australian wool and sheep industry leaders, at a meeting in Sydney in November 2004, unanimously expressed their commitment to the phasing out of the current practice of mulesing by 2010. The wool and sheep industries remain committed to the cessation of mulesing by 2010.
The industry instructed Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), the industry’s research , development, innovation and marketing company, to fast-track a number of research and development programs to enable, firstly, an end to mulesing and secondly, interim measures to ensure animal welfare continues to be an absolute priority.
The industry directed AWI to increase funding for the development of alternatives to conventional mulesing.
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