No Sheep Torture in Civilized Australia

peter.mcgauran.mp(at)aph.gov.au, Peter.shergold(at)pmc.gov.au, john.howard(at)pmc.gov.au  

Peter McGauran, MP
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
John Howard, Prime Minister
Peter Shergold, Secretary of Department Prime Minister and Cabinet
Canberra, Australia


Dear Minister McGauran,
dear Prime Minister Howard,
dear Secretary Shergold,

The international boycott of Australian wool has resumed after two major wool industry groups, Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and WoolProducers, flatly rejected a landmark agreement between PETA and the Australian Wool Growers Association (AWGA) that would have resulted in an immediate and industrywide reduction in lamb mutilations and created live-export reforms.

AWI and others refused to do anything other than criticize the plan during the moratorium, despite the urging of major retailers—including Benetton, Gap Inc., Liz Claiborne, Lands’ End, L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Jones Apparel Group, Nordstrom, and Ann Taylor—to join them in supporting the PETA/AWGA agreement and expressing interest in the new, more humane brand of wool created by the agreement. The wool industry has had 45 days to consider the compromise agreement, but it has done little more than pay lip service to its claims to care about animal welfare.

Why has the Australian government done nothing to stop the cruel practices of mutilating lambs and exporting live sheep to the Middle East, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the mutilation is so cruel that it adversely affects the animals for months and that animals shipped overseas are killed in ways that would be illegal in Australia?

Tens of thousands of lambs endure “mulesing” each year, a painful mutilation in which farmers cut skin and flesh from lambs’ backsides—without any painkillers. Every year, millions of Australian sheep are transported thousands of miles through all weather extremes to be cruelly unloaded, transported, and slaughtered in the Middle East.  

Dear Ministers, please stop turning a blind eye to the suffering of millions of Australian animals and call for an end to the cruel mulesing mutilations of lambs and the exporting of live sheep to the Middle East. Please put a permanent stop to mulesing mutilations and cruel live sheep exports to countries that don't meet Australia's animal welfare standards NOW! Thank you very much for your help in advance.

Yours sincerely,