Woolgrowers eye end to the cruel cut

The eyes of Australia's struggling woolgrowers are fixed on the rear ends of a merino ram and his ewes on a sheep stud on the remote Eyre Peninsula west of Adelaide, South Australia.

Merinos not only produce the most sought-after fine wool in the world, but do so in voluminous fleeces that hang in great folds over every part of them save their faces and hooves.

And that is the problem. Where the fleeces hang over their bottoms they trap faeces- and urine-soaked fats, fertile ground for blow fly infestations.

As the blow fly larvae hatch in this hot rich environment, they burrow into the skin of the sheep, eating their flesh and often causing anything from as little as 1 per cent to around 50 per cent of afflicted flocks to die agonising deaths.

The woolgrowers' answer to this, a practice called mulesing, has in turn seen their industry targeted by protests and boycotts around the world.

This is because mulesing, named after J.H. Mules, a stockman who invented the procedure during the Great Depression, involves carving the wool-producing layers of skin away from the sheep's nether regions with a knife to produce permanently bald scar tissue.

It wasn't until last October, when animal rights activists began posting grotesque images of the bleeding hindquarters of sheep on the internet and by posters on buildings, that mulesing achieved notoriety.

There was even a protest billboard in New York City asking "Did your sweater cause a bloody butt" while showing the mutilation in action.

The campaign led by the US group Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) persuaded the American leisure retailer Abercrombie & Fitch to boycott clothes containing Australian wool until mulesing was stopped.

Maneka Gandhi, a member of India's Parliament, publicly urged 250 of her nation's clothing retail chains to boycott Australian wool because "we do not need the blood of Australian sheep on our hands".

Yet just as the Federal Court in Sydney reserved its decision in a case brought against Peta by Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), the wool growing lobby group, word came through of the mutant bare-bottom lambs on the Eyre Peninsula.

Neil Smith, who runs the Calcookera Stud, says his wife noticed a merino ram with bald testicles.

"At first we didn't like that," Smith told ABC Radio. "The fate of breeding stock with extra toes, pigment problems or other disfigurements is usually a bullet."

However, as stud staff started looking for offspring with any sign of the fault, the penny dropped. "We saw it in some of the ewes and we thought, 'Hey, this could be handy'."

The CSIRO national science research body agrees. It has been spending tens of millions of dollars trying to overcome the susceptibility to fly strike in sheep by identifying and modifying the genes responsible for the breed's woolly backside.

The stud and the CSIRO are now trying to build up the bare-bottom lamb numbers, and study their DNA for more clues as to the secrets of this miracle of the Outback.

But back in the Federal Court, the bench will rule in about two weeks on a bitterly-fought case that not only pitted animal activists against the wool industry, but wool growers against one another.

AWI sought restraining orders against Peta for having engaged in secondary boycotts, illegal under Australian trade practice laws.

It also sought an order compelling Peta to publish advertisements withdrawing claims about mulesing that the lobby claimed were incorrect.

However, some businesses with interests in wool have declined to join the legal action for fear that it could take years, cost millions of dollars and work in Peta's favour regardless of the outcome.

One woolgrower, Martin Oppenheimer, a shareholder in AWI, began a member uprising against the organisation's "crazy" litigation, which he condemned as "way outside of its charter" of research and development.

Mulesing Q&A

What is mulesing?

Cutting away layers of skin from a sheep's backside to stop flystrike on the dirty wool.

What's wrong with it?

The practice produces bleeding and leaves scars. Animal rights activists have condemned it as cruel and campaigned against Australian wool.

Does mulesing happen in New Zealand?

Yes, but not as commonly as in Australia. Farmers say the procedure here takes away less skin because of our animal welfare code.

Are there alternatives?

Australian farmers hope to breed sheep with naturally wool-free nether regions (see story). In New Zealand researchers are testing a protein that stops wool from growing on the treated skin.