20 years of broken promises – what’s holding Australia back from ending mulesing?

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20 years of broken promises – what’s holding Australia back from ending mulesing?

RSPCA Australia
Tuesday, 17 September 2024

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2024 marks the 20-year anniversary of the Australian wool industry’s commitment to phase out mulesing by 2010. But there’s no celebration to be had, as the wool industry broke their promise years ago and progress towards a mulesing phase out has been minimal.

This broken promise has had significant implications for the welfare of Australian sheep as well as for Australia’s international reputation. An estimated 140 million lambs have been subjected to mulesing since 2010, and the industry appears unwilling to change.

The original commitment, made in 2004 in response to community pressure and increasing awareness of sheep suffering, gave wool producers an end date of 2010 to phase out mulesing. But one year shy of the deadline, the wool industry abandoned the commitment, citing a failure to find a sufficiently developed alternative.

Australia is one of the largest producers of wool in the world, producing around 368 million kilograms every year, and contributing 70% of the apparel wool used by the global fashion industry. And with such a large stake in the wool business, the community would expect animal welfare requirements to be of the highest standard - yet the wool industry continues to rely on a practice that is outdated and harmful to the very sheep their livelihood depends on.

So why the delay, and where to from here?

Welfare impacts too significant to ignore

Mulesing is a painful husbandry procedure relied on by the wool industry to prevent flystrike in sheep. Lambs are restrained on their back while crescent-shaped flaps of skin are cut from the breech area (backside, upper hind legs and/or tail) using sharp shears. In every state, except Tasmania and Victoria where the use of pain relief is mandatory, it can be performed without pain relief and use is up to the discretion of the producer.

Mulesing is painful for sheep, and even if pain relief is used, it doesn’t mitigate the long-lasting pain or the fear, suffering, and distress that mulesing causes. Nor is using pain relief a wholly effective treatment, as the only anaesthetic accessible to Australian farmers is a topical anaesthetic which can only be applied to open wounds. When topical anaesthetic is used – either alone or in combination with an oral or injectable pain relief product – lambs still feel every cut from the shears and still experience pain in the days and weeks until the mulesing wound has healed.

Lambs who have been mulesed socialise less and exhibit behavioural indicators of pain such as hunched standing and less time resting and feeding. A mulesed lamb may also avoid humans, and in particular the person who mulesed them, in the weeks following the procedure – a clear indicator of the fear and pain the lamb experienced from the procedure.

There’s a better way already available

Crucially, these young lambs don’t need to be put through such an intensely painful procedure. A viable and, most importantly, more humane solution already exists which is to breed flystrike-resistant sheep. It’s a solution that the wool industry has been aware of for almost as long as mulesing has been around. This is because the wrinkly breeds of Merino that are bred today have become this way due to purposeful genetic selection for high wrinkle (excessive skin) in the belief that more skin means more wool. The issue of wrinkly sheep that are prone to flystrike is an issue caused by people, and therefore it’s the responsibility of the people of the wool industry to resolve it.

Transitioning to flystrike-resistant sheep can take only a few generations of breeding plain-bodied (low/no wrinkle) sheep. It would have been wholly possible for every wool producer to honour the commitment to end mulesing in the twenty years since the promise was made. Instead, millions of dollars have been spent researching other measures that might replace mulesing. The wool industry failed to keep its promise quite simply because it failed to act on a proven solution that has long been available.

Australia is lagging behind in animal welfare

Australia is not the only country producing large quantities of wool; countries such as New Zealand, Argentina, Norway, South Africa, the US and the UK also produce significant amounts. These countries all produce wool from non-mulesed sheep. Australia on the other hand, is the only country in the world where mulesing is known to still occur.

As long as mulesing continues, Australian wool producers’ social licence is at risk. As one of the world’s largest wool producers, Australia’s animal welfare standards should be stringent and robust, but by allowing mulesing to continue, we fail community and customer expectations. Over 300 international brands are now committed to sourcing non-mulesed wool, and they and their customers will turn elsewhere for wool if Australia fails to move with the times.

Consumer concern about mulesing has continued to grow. A recent YouGov poll found, upon learning about what mulesing involves, 73% of Australians agree retailers should stop sourcing mulesed wool, and many consumers are already actively seeking mulesing-free wool or avoiding wool completely.

There are Australian wool producers who have successfully transitioned their flocks to flystrike-resistant sheep. But the numbers are not yet enough to make a meaningful difference, with the latest annual report from the Sheep Sustainability Framework showing only 15.8 per cent of Merino wool was declared as non-mulesed, increasing by only 0.5 per cent from the previous year.

What must happen now

The last twenty years have unfortunately shown that the wool industry cannot be trusted to end mulesing on its own. It’s time now for the Australian Government to intervene and demonstrate clear and timely leadership to facilitate an end to the cruel practice of mulesing for good.

A recently released report The Broken Promise, produced by the Australian Alliance for Animals, Four Paws Australia and HSI Australia, recommends a transition away from mulesing by 2030, with support for wool producers to breed flystrike-resistant sheep, mandatory pain relief for mulesing during the transition period, and a review of the Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Sheep. The RSPCA supports these recommendations, and works closely with these organisations and others in the animal welfare sector to work towards an end to mulesing.

There is a proven, higher-welfare alternative that offers whole-body, lifelong protection for sheep against flystrike. There is no justifiable reason to continue this cruel and outdated practice on the very animals the industry depends on for their livelihood. A mulesing-free future is the only acceptable way forward.

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20 years of broken promises – what’s holding Australia back from ending mulesing?

Welfare impacts too significant to ignore

There’s a better way already available

Australia is lagging behind in animal welfare

What must happen now

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