Inbuilt within factory farming is the sacrifice of the individual animal and their intrinsic need. What is important is the drive for maximum profits to be made from the greatest number of animals kept at the minimum amount of expense. Consequently, solutions to factory farming’s self-induced problems are often cheap and quick.
Compassion proudly works with the farming community to help them improve the welfare standards of the animals they raise. This is why we’ve been able to achieve so much, including bans on dry sow stalls, veal crates and battery cages. Clearly, there is much left to be done in this country and Europe but also throughout the world. It is with this in mind that I am deeply disappointed with the recent decision by the Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) to abandon its commitment to a phase out of mulesing by 2010.
Mulesing involves cutting away areas of wrinkled skin from around the tail of sheep. It is now performed on something like 70 percent of Merino wool-producing sheep in Australia. This is thought to be between 12 and 15 million sheep each year. Mulesing is a painful surgical procedure which, if it were performed on our beloved companion animals, would take place in a sterile operating theatre. Many Australian farmers, however, routinely mutilate – there is no other word to describe it – their sheep in the open air using shears which are not sterilized between animals, often without anaesthetic or analgesic.
In fairness, the industry has made progress in implementing the use of the anaesthetic, Trisolfen, which is sprayed on the wound after surgery with antiseptic to reduce the pain. However, there is no pain relieving analgesic applied before the operation and there will be residual pain after the anaesthetic has worn off and nearly half still get no pain relief at all.
Mulesing helps to prevent blowflies from laying eggs in the folds of skin, producing larvae that ultimately eat into the flesh. If left untreated, this can kill the animal. The farming industry calls this “flystrike.” Mulesing is a self-inflicted problem and there are practical steps farmers can take now to help stop the problem.
AWI’s statement claims alternatives to mulesing are “not sufficiently developed.” They speak of a new policy that is “step-wise, ethical and sustainable.” But they also say mulesing is now “fundamentally a transaction between buyer and seller, and will be resolved by the laws of supply and demand.” These are not encouraging words.
AWI only agreed to the 2010 deadline five years ago after an intensive international publicity campaign which helped to bring mulesing to light and embarrassed the industry to act. Compassion urges AWI to:
- Fulfill its commitment to end mulesing by the 2010 deadline
- Continue to advocate use of the anaesthetic TriSolfen and urgently press for licensing of the anti-inflammatory Carprofen for sheep to relieve pain
- Initiate more frequent shearing, crutching and closer inspections of flocks and use of chemicals to significantly avoid flystrike and the need to mules,
- and most importantly, advocate the breeding of sheep that are not susceptible to flystrike.
And, like AWI, we also believe in consumer choice and urge our supporters to act!
