Many Australian sheep will be spared from mutilation, thanks to U.K.-based grocery giant Tesco, which has announced that it will buy lamb meat only from farms that do not perform mulesing. Farmers who raise sheep for wool often sell them for slaughter if wool prices drop, meat prices increase, or the sheep are too old to breed. But now Tesco will only buy the meat if the farmers did not mutilate the sheep during wool production.

© Patty Mark/ALV

 
Mulesing is a barbaric procedure in which Australian farmers use garden shears to carve chunks of skin and flesh from the lamb's backsides in a crude attempt to create smoother skin that won't collect moisture and attract flies. But the exposed, bloody wounds often attract flies before they heal, or they become infected. Many sheep who have undergone the mulesing mutilation still suffer slow, agonizing deaths from flystrike. PETA has lobbied for the Australian wool industry to require all sheep farmers to control flystrike with the humane methods—such as breeding for a bare breech, spray washing, and more frequent monitoring of sheep—that are already being used by some farmers.

To thank Tesco for helping to end this cruel practice, PETA U.K. has sent the company a vegan cake emblazoned with the image of a sheep. You can help by urging the Australian government to outlaw mulesing today.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

Virginia police are looking for a serial butt-slasher—a man who has cut several women across their backsides with a sharp blade in crowded shopping malls. While these attacks are disturbing, they are all too common—at least in Australia, where there is a veritable butt-slashing epidemic.

Every year, Australian farmers cut huge chunks of flesh from millions of gentle lambs' backsides during the mulesing mutilation. The lambs struggle as they are forced into metal restraints and have the skin around their tails cut away with garden shears in a crude and cruel attempt to prevent flystrike—a maggot infestation that affects Merino sheep who have been bred to have excessively wrinkly skin in which flies lay their eggs. The wounds from mulesing may take weeks to heal, and until then, the little lambs walk sideways like crabs because of the pain. Many lambs die when infection sets in or from flystrike—the very condition that the mulesing mutilation is supposed to prevent.

There are humane and more effective options for preventing flystrike, including breeding sheep to have less wrinkly skin and monitoring flocks more closely to treat the early signs of flystrike. Please take a moment to tell Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard that it's time for the wool industry to get off its a** and start treating sheep as living creatures, not commodities.

Written by Heather Faraid Drennan

For some reason, Donna Karan seems to think that it's a good idea to highlight the fact that the rabbit-fur collar on this coat is from China:
 

Yes, indeed, China—the land of melamine-tainted baby formula and corrosive drywall. It's practically synonymous with quality! Not to mention cruelty.
 

We think a better selling point is the fact that the collar is detachable, which means you can stop people from pointing and frowning and wondering what on Earth that poor little bunny ever did to you. Of course, they'll still wonder what you have against North African lambs …

Written by Alisa Mullins

PETA supporter Mimi wasn't on the agenda—or even the guest list—for the International Wool Textile Organisation's recent conference in France, but when an Australian farming representative started to tell attendees that the barbaric practice of lamb mulesing is necessary, she became the featured speaker. Mimi borrowed the microphone to inform the crowd that mulesing is a fiercely cruel practice in which farmers cut flesh from lambs' hindquarters with a pair of gardening shears (without using painkillers), even though alternatives exist. So much for trying to pull the wool over people's eyes!

Of course, you don't need to snag a microphone to voice your opposition to mulesing. Just personalize and send this message to the Australian government. And for extra credit, avoid all merino wool—or wool of any kind for that matter.

Written by Heather Moore

asimpleyarn / CC

Retailers around the world are finding alternatives to mulesed wool, and we're thrilled to announce that Gap Inc. is the latest mega-vendor to take a stand against the mutilation.

Last year, the clothing giant sent us a letter stating its opposition to the mulesing mutilation and pledging to monitor the Australian wool industry's promise to end mulesing by 2010. Since then, we've been in constant contact with representatives of Gap Inc., and after we let them know that the Australian wool industry reneged on its vow, the company released this statement:

Millions of sheep in Australia continue to endure the torment of having hunks of flesh hacked off their backsides or to suffer through the equally painful process of clip mulesing, in which clips are attached to the skin on lambs' backsides, causing the skin to rot and fall off. Take a moment to urge Talbots—which has failed to take any meaningful action against the Australian wool industry—to follow in Gap Inc.'s compassionate footsteps.

Written by Logan Scherer