Ask Australian Prime Minister to End Lamb Mutilations

Prominent Australian wool producers are pushing for the continued mutilation of millions of lambs each year—without any painkillers—despite previous promises to end the mulesing practice by 2010. Mulesing is a gruesome procedure in which farmers use gardening shears to cut huge chunks of skin and flesh from the backsides of lambs—without any painkillers—as a cruel and cheap method of preventing flystrike.

Just as PETA predicted, this "commitment" by the Australian wool industry appears to be a smokescreen to allow farmers to continue mutilating millions of lambs each year while pulling the wool over consumers' eyes. Clearly, the only way to ensure that Australian lambs are not painfully mutilated is for the Australian government to enact a permanent ban on this cruel and unnecessary practice.

The wool industry can and should end mulesing mutilations of lambs today, since effective and humane alternatives are already available. PETA is asking the wool industry to immediately use the better husbandry practices that are already employed by many Australian farmers to effectively and humanely prevent flystrike today, even as the entire industry also phases in a complete switch to flystrike-resistant breeds of sheep—something that should have been done decades ago.

Please urge the Australian prime minister to outlaw mulesing now and save millions of Australian sheep every year from needless suffering.

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