Please enjoy this article from the latest issue of our magazine, PETA Global. To begin your subscription, become a PETA member today!
Flocks of sheep dotting green fields may paint an idyllic picture of the British countryside, but their abuse in shearing sheds is something straight out of the London dungeons. A PETA Asia eyewitness visited over four dozen farms in England and Scotland and witnessed chilling scenes of cruelty on every one of them.
Shearers race through their work, losing their tempers at anything that slows them down, because they’re paid by volume. When the frightened sheep struggled while being pinned down, the shearers punched them in the face, stomped on them, kicked them, and stood on their heads and necks. They threw the sheep around, twisted their necks and limbs, slammed them into the floor, and threw them off the shearing platform. Sheep were left with gaping, bloody wounds, which workers stitched up without any pain relief.
Denied Food, Water, Care
Sheep were deprived of food and water before being sheared, in part to weaken them so they would put up minimal resistance and possibly also to prevent them from urinating and defecating. One Scottish farmer actually admitted to denying hundreds of sheep water for up to two days. Some were suffering from prolapsed uteruses, bloody hooves, and painful udder infections. The eyewitness never saw injured or sick sheep receive any veterinary care whatsoever. One sheep couldn’t stand up: A worker said that she was going to be shot. Another on an English farm died of what a farmer described as a “heart attack” during shearing. The animals were so scared and so abused, that may well have been the case.
Left to Die
Sick or injured sheep were routinely dragged off and left to die. On one farm in Scotland, a farmer dragged a dying sheep by the leg, allowing her head to bounce along the rocky ground. A shearer dangled a dying sheep from a shearing platform and then left her lying against a railing, where she convulsed and died.
According to Donald Maurice Broom, professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge in England, some types of abuse, including sewing up wounds without anesthesia and throwing sheep around, violate the recommendations of the World Organisation for Animal Health and are illegal.
Different Place, Same Story
In every single shed visited by eyewitnesses from PETA Asia and its affiliates, the same abusive behavior was seen. Nine exposés of 96 sheep farms, including in Australia and in North and South America, have revealed sheep being beaten up, kicked, mutilated, and jabbed in the face with clippers and even lambs being skinned alive. The conclusion is obvious: All wool – no matter where it originates or whether it’s under some “humane-washing” marketing label, such as “responsibly sourced” – spells suffering for sheep.
Take Action Now
Watch footage of English farms at PETAAsia.com/EnglishWool and share it with friends. Cut wool out of your closet. Instead, choose sheep-friendly fibers such as cotton, acrylic, and polyester fleece.
