The Hindu Business Line : The polemics of wool

Even as animal welfare and protection bodies do not countenance mulesing, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Australian Veterinary Association and the Australian Government's Chief Veterinary Officer recognise the practice as an effective precautionary husbandry procedure to prevent breech-fly strike.

WITH animal welfare organisations turning the spotlight on what they call cruelty to animals, the supply of primary raw material for wool, drawn from sheep, has assumed polemical overtones. Apparel wool, which was once used only for winter clothing, is finding newer use across the world, especially in emerging economies such as India, in blending with cotton and other natural fibres for casual wear.

The relatively small Indian wool industry is all but dwarfed with the country largely importing from Australia and, to a limited extent, New Zealand the fine quality wool required by organised mills and the decentralised hosiery segment. And when PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), backed by the local animal rights group and Ms Maneka Gandhi, recently raised the issue of what they called cruel sheep shearing by Australian sheep and wool producers, there were furious bleats of protests. Stung by the charge and the campaign against their practices, an Australian Wool and Sheep Industry Taskforce flocked to the capital to respond to the criticisms of the animal welfare organisations and to put the whole thing in perspective.

Mr David Coombes, Taskforce Secretariat, explained the practise of mulesing, which has been the target of attack. Mulesing, Mr Coombes explained, is a vital once-off operation, which entails surgically removing the skin around the breech (backside) to prevent wool growth.

As more than 85 per cent of the Australian flock are purebred Merino sheep, mulesing is resorted to protect the Merino from attack in the breech area by the virulent Australian sheep blowfly.

Said Mr Coombes: "Around the tail, urine and faeces can accumulate and attract sheep blowfly which lays eggs and the maggots eat into the skin of sheep. If let untreated, it causes blood poising and death or acute suffering". Hence, mulesing is the most effective way of protecting Merino sheep from fly strike and, in a bad year, if mulesing is banned, almost three million sheep might die of fly strike.

Mulesing, Mr Coombes said, provides lifetime protection against breech strike, as it spawns a clean, non-wool bearing area of skin in the breech side. Dismissing the myth that mulesing entails chopping off chunks of flesh, he contends that it involves removal of "small strip of skin".

Other methods such as spraying with insecticides, removing wool from the breech area (crutching), fly traps and inspection of flocks to minimise fly strike could not match the efficacy of mulesing.

Research by the University of Adelaide focuses on non-surgical technique using the natural protein, collagenase, to remove wool follicles and stretch bare skin in the breech. Money is no constraint in commercialising it before long. In any case, the Australian wool industry is committed to phasing out mulesing by 2010, he said.

Even as animal welfare and protection bodies do not countenance mulesing, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA, Australia), the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) and the Australian Government's Chief Veterinary Officer recognise the practice as an effective precautionary husbandry procedure to prevent breech-fly strike.

The Australian Taskforce did not conceal its reservation when it stated that PETA is a vegan organisation with a mission to end the use of animals for food, fibre production, medical research and recreation.

But when the interests of industry and the welfare concerns of activists clash, wisdom may lie in finding a solution instead of rising against global and local retailers for purveying wool-based products and hurting their commercial interests and depriving the consumers of their warm woollen clothing.

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