Why does PETA oppose mulesing?
Mulesing is a gruesome procedure in which farmers flip lambs onto their backs, restrain them between metal bars, and use gardening shears to cut huge chunks of flesh from their rumps without any painkillers whatsoever. Mulesing is a cheap, crude attempt to create smooth, scarred skin that is resistant to blowfly maggots which can eat sheep alive. However, the enormous, bloody wounds can attract the very flies the procedure is supposed to repel, and lambs sometimes get flystrike before they even heal from the traumatic ordeal. Humane alternatives are available now. They include breeding for less wrinkly skin on the hindquarters (a bare breech), increased monitoring of sheep, and blowfly control. These alternatives are already in use by as many as 20 percent of Australian sheep farmers, so there is no excuse to continue to mutilate lambs even one day longer.
