Baby Clings to Life at Australian Lamb Farm

Which animal loves to play, wags their tail to express joy, and will paw at you for pats? A lamb, of course!

Lambs are gentle, curious individuals who are killed at mere months old so we can eat their flesh.

Newly Released Footage Reveals Suffering in Aussie Lamb Industry

Newly released footage shot inside an Australian lamb operation by PETA Asia reveals dead and dying lambs, some covered in blood, others swarming with flies as their bodies rot in the scorching sun.

PETA Asia also filmed workers dragging lambs across concrete floors by their delicate limbs in scenes eerily reminiscent of PETA exposés into wool operations in Australia and around the globe.

Business as Usual in the Lamb Industry

This new footage isn’t a case of “a few bad apples” but represents routine meat industry norms.

More than 20 million lambs are slaughtered annually in Australia for their flesh, and more than half of all lamb and sheep meat consumed in the U.S. comes from Australia. Most lambs are ‘fattened up’ in a feedlot (like a factory farm) before slaughter. Outdoor feedlots usually lack shade, subjecting animals to the harsh elements, while indoor feedlots stress sheep with insufficient space and no opportunity to exercise, graze, or rest comfortably.

At just six to eight months, workers prod lambs onto trucks where they are driven on long journeys toward slaughter without water or food. Once at the slaughterhouse, workers drag them, screaming, toward a kill floor and slit their throats.

Australian Lambs Mutilated From Birth

Mother sheep are doting and naturally stay close to their babies for up to six months, but they don’t get that chance in the food industry.

Taken from their mothers, the Australian industry estimates that around a quarter of newborn lambs—10 to 15 million animals—die annually from exposure or starvation within their first 48 hours of life.

For the lambs who survive, workers slice off their tails and cut off their testicles. Because sheep have been bred to purposely grow an unnatural overload of wool, their skin wrinkles collect urine and moisture. Attracted to the moisture, flies lay eggs in the folds of skin, and the hatched maggots can eat the sheep alive.

To prevent this “flystrike,” Australian ranchers force live sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs between metal bars, and carve huge chunks of skin away from the animals’ backsides or attach vise-like clamps to their flesh until it dies and sloughs off. Both procedures, called “mulesing,” are terribly painful and ineffective.

Mulesing is a crude attempt to create smoother skin that won’t collect moisture, but the exposed, bloody wounds often become infected or flystruck anyway. Many sheep who have undergone the mulesing mutilation still suffer slow, agonizing deaths from flystrike.

Like all animals raised for meat, farming lambs is about getting the most bang for a farmer’s buck.

You Can Help Save Lambs

Helping animals is as easy as not putting babies in our ovens or mouths!

Look for delicious vegan upgrades to lamb flesh, like Black Sheep Foods pea protein–based Lamb, Redefine Meat’s Shawarma, May Wah “mutton,” and Vegan Stewed Lamb Chunk, in stores, at restaurants, and online. Or, to impress both vegans and not-yet-vegans alike, try your hand at Zacchary Bird’s herb-crusted vegan lamb cutlets.

You can also help lambs by never wearing wool and opting instead for cozy wool-free materials.

Ready to help animals? Join our 3-Week Vegan Challenge today and receive tips and support to help you turn over a new leaf.