Wool-Industry Workers Videotaped Punching, Stamping on Sheep, Slamming Them to Ground in PETA Asia Investigation

Upsetting Footage Shot in 25 Farming Sheds Shows Pervasive, Rampant Abuse

For Immediate Release:
August 23, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA Asia has released the first-ever video exposé of cruelty within the English wool industry, and it shows shearers violently punching sheep in the face, stamping and standing on their heads and necks, and beating and jabbing the animals in the face with electric clippers, all while the workers swear a blue streak at the petrified animals. An eyewitness to the abuse also documented that shearers from two contractors touring 25 farms made large, bloody wounds on the sheep’s bodies from fast, rough shearing and that the workers stitched gaping wounds up with a needle and thread and without administering any pain relief whatsoever. The sheep didn’t receive any veterinary care, including for painful conditions such as mastitis (an udder infection) and prolapsed uteruses during the investigation.

One farmer was filmed dragging two injured sheep who were unable to walk into a shed, where he left them to suffer without care. They eventually died. Several more sheep died during shearing from possible shock from the rough handling, or what one farmer called a “heart attack”.

The video exposé highlights just some of the cruelty the investigator observed at the 25 farming sheds visited by the shearing contractors. PETA Asia has filed a 15-page complaint with the RSPCA and asked it to launch an investigation and, if appropriate, file criminal charges against the workers for apparent violations of laws prohibiting cruelty to animals.

“Sheep are gentle prey animals who are petrified of even being held down, yet these animals were punched in the face, kicked, and stamped on, and their heads were slammed into the floor by impatient shearers, causing them great distress and injury,” says PETA Asia Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA Asia is calling on shoppers around the world to reject cruelty to animals—and that means never buying real wool.”

Photographs from the investigation are available here. Broadcast-quality video footage from the investigation is available here. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com.