Undercover Video Reveals Continued Cruelty To Sheep In Australian Shearing Sheds

As people around the world are rushing to purchase the last of their holiday gifts, a new video exposé of the wool industry has been released in an effort to promote shopping with a compassionate heart and cruelty-free dollars.

Produced by PETA, the undercover video captured horrific scenes of workers violently punching frightened sheep in the face, stomping and standing on their heads and necks, and beating and jabbing them in the head with electric clippers.

The investigator also documented that the violent shearing process left large, bloody cuts on poor animals’ bodies and that workers stitched up gaping wounds with a needle and thread and no pain relief.

The video highlights just some of the cruelty observed at each of the five shearing sheds visited by an investigator in Victoria and New South Wales; a mere three years after PETA exposed similar rampant abuse at the world’s top wool exporters across Australia, which resulted in landmark felony cruelty convictions against shearers.

“Sheep are gentle prey animals who are petrified of even being held down, yet in these sheds, they were punched in the face, kicked, and stomped on, and their heads were slammed into the floor by unsupervised, impatient shearers, causing them great distress and injury,” noted PETA’S Executive Vice President, Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on shoppers around the world to reject cruelty to animals, and that means never buying wool.”

The secretary of the Shearing Contractors’ Association of Australia said that the 2014 footage had been a “wake-up call” to the industry and vowed to implement a zero-tolerance policy on cruelty to animals, and clothing retailers around the world pledged to demand improved conditions at their suppliers.

Sadly, the deplorable findings of this latest wool investigation, the eighth, in countries on three continents, including Argentina, Chile, and the United States, prove that many are not honoring that pledge.

May this video not only wake them up this time but make them stop this barbaric and inhumane practice against innocent animals once and for all!

Please Help Make Compassion The Fashion & Go Wool Free This Winter!