Mulesing

Mulesing is performed annually on over 20 million Australian Merino lambs. It involves taking a crescent-shaped slice of skin (5-7 cm) from either buttock (the ‘breach’) of a sheep, without anaesthetic, and results in abnormal behaviour for up to three days.

Despite industry’s promise to phase-out mulesing by 2010, many retailers throughout Europe have boycotted Australian wool due to overwhelming consumer concern.

More humane alternatives to surgical mulesing, such as intradermal injections prompting fleece to fall away from the breach (permanently) through a process of necrosis, are currently not receiving the support they require from Australia’s wool industry.

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Animal Testing

Cruel and painful testing on animals is widespread in medicine, agriculture, pharmaceutics and education. However, the scientific merit and human benefit of many of these tests is contested by numerous scientists.

Amendments to the Code of Practice have seen ‘benchmarks’ implemented calling for the three R’s: reduction (less animals used), replacement (non-animal alternatives) and refinement (ensuring suffering is minimised).

Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go before there is an onus on people to utilise non-animal means of testing – such as the use of proteins from human cells.


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