Australia’s Vacation Nightmare

In order to show tourists that behind glossy pictures of the Sydney Opera House and Ayers Rock, Australia has an ugly secret, PETA is launching a new video spoof of an Oz tourism promotion called, “There’s Nothing Like Australia’s Cruelty to Sheep.” Our version shows the cruelty of the Australian wool industry with video of farmers as they mutilate lambs’ backsides, while the national anthem plays.

Much of the world’s wool comes from Australian sheep who are subjected to “mulesing,” a painful procedure in which farmers cut chunks of skin and flesh from sheep’s backsides, often without adequate pain relief, in a crude and cruel attempt to prevent maggot infestation, called “flystrike.” Humane methods of flystrike prevention—such as closer monitoring of sheep and breeding sheep who are less susceptible to flystrike—are available and in use by some farmers in Australia.

To help give sheep a permanent vacation from cruelty, please e-mail the Australian Prime Minister and ask her to take action immediately to end mulesing.
Written by Michelle Sherrow