What is the purpose of mulesing?
The purpose of mulesing is to cut off the skin folds around the buttocks to leave a bare area where no wool and no wrinkles grow for flies to lay their eggs in. The procedure is performed annually without adequate pain relief on over 10 million lambs in Australia.
What is wrong with mulesing?
Mulesing is a crude attempt to create smoother skin that won’t collect moisture, but the exposed, bloody wounds often become infected or flystruck. Many sheep who have undergone the mulesing mutilation still suffer slow, agonizing deaths from flystrike. Mutilating sheep is not just cruel; it’s also ineffective.
What does the word mulesing mean?
Mulesing is the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep to prevent the parasitic infection flystrike (myiasis). The wool around the buttocks can retain faeces and urine, which attracts flies.
Why do people Mulesed sheep?
In Australia, sheep raised for wool are commonly subjected to a painful procedure called mulesing, where flaps of skin from around a lamb’s breech and tail are cut off using sharp shears to reduce the risk of flystrike.
Who invented mulesing?
JHW Mules
History of mulesing The mules operation, or mulesing, was developed by JHW Mules in 1929 to aid in the control of blowfly strike in the breech or crutch of sheep. It is a surgical procedure performed on lambs at marking time where the skin folds around the breech area are removed by mulesing shears or a knife.
Does mulesing still happen?
In an attempt to reduce the incidence of flystrike in Australia, the “Mules” operation was introduced in the 1930s. Skin is sliced from the buttocks of lambs without anesthetic to produce a scar free of wool, fecal/urine stains, and skin wrinkles. Over 20 million merino breed lambs are currently mulesed each year.
Which countries use mulesing?
Mulesing is currently performed on approximately 70% of Merino wool-producing sheep in Australia. Due to the suffering caused by this procedure, mulesing has been banned in New Zealand. However, it can still be legally performed in Australia and without any pain relief.
What are the alternatives to mulesing?
Sheep farmers have traditionally used mulesing to reduce flystrike risk. Alternatives to mulesing have been trialled over the years; the most recent is ‘sheep freeze branding’, previously referred to as ‘steining’.
Is mulesing legal in USA?
Mulesing is the process where lambs, just 6-12 weeks old, are restrained on their backs, while strips of skin are cut away from their backside. Mulesing causes lambs excruciating pain, fear, and stress, and it’s currently still legal to carry out this procedure without any form of pain relief.
Is mulesing painful?
Mulesing is a painful procedure that involves cutting crescent-shaped flaps of skin from around a lamb’s breech and tail using sharp shears designed specifically for this purpose. The resulting wound, when healed, creates an area of bare, stretched scar tissue.
Is Steining painful for sheep?
Studies of an earlier model of the applicator found that the method is painful and had no benefits in terms of reduced pain over mulesing regardless of whether pain relief was provided [1]. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that the current application technology causes any less pain or distress to sheep.
Is there an alternative to mulesing?
Alternatives to mulesing have been trialled over the years; the most recent is ‘sheep freeze branding’, previously referred to as ‘steining’. Mulesing is a painful procedure that involves cutting crescent-shaped flaps of skin from around a lamb’s breech and tail using sharp shears.