Mulesing

REALITY CHECK

Instead of proper management and good animal husbandry, farmers of large sheep herds typically resort to mulesing as a common approach to prevent blowflies from laying eggs in moist and soiled wool, leaving an infestation of maggots (a condition called flystrike). The lambs are tied by their legs, upside down, to long frames, and a laborer slices away a section of their skin as large as a plate. No anesthetics are used and the sheep will suffer the pain for months.

This brutal mutilation is used in Australia and New Zealand, where it is seen as an easy and cheap solution that saves on labor costs. Responsible care would include treatment of concurrent conditions like parasites, diarrhea, and footrot, the application of insecticides, and periodic washing of the sheep to clean the fur of feces stains.

As a result of threatened boycotts of Australian wool, industry leaders claim they will gradually phase out the practice of mulesing by 2010.