Bloody sheep's butt on billboard

American animal rights activists have erected a large, gruesome billboard near one of the country's busiest thoroughfares in their campaign to create a worldwide boycott of Australian wool.

The billboard on Manhattan's Ninth Ave will be seen by almost 100,000 US motorists and pedestrians a day.

It is dominated by a photo of a sheep's mutilated, bleeding rear end after undergoing the mulesing technique favoured by some Australian farmers and says Did Your Sweater Cause a Bloody Butt? Boycott Australian Wool!

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is trying to stop mulesing and wants a ban on the live export of Australian sheep in what the group describes as cruel conditions.

Mulesing is used to prevent flystrike.