#mulesing

Because I just found out about Mulesing by complete accident, and holy fuck shit what.

Without going into sharp detail: Merino sheep have some natural butt wrinkles that can create good conditions for blowfly infestations when you add the wool on top of those wrinkles. To cut down on the chance of this happening, sheep farmers will cut the wrinkles off so the wrinkles and wool are gone and wool won't grow there again.

Anesthesia is not generally used when cutting the wrinkles off. A local may be given to the sheep AFTER the wrinkles are cut off, but not FOR cutting off the wrinkles.

Here's a case study that notes the reason the sheep doesn't get the good shit before the mulesing is because anesthesia comes from a vet and is considered too expensive. (CONTENT WARNING: That link includes photos of recently cut sheep)

And you know what? FUCK THAT. There are options that AREN'T cutting your sheep up (included in the linked case study), but even if there weren't, the lack of painkillers is fucked up.

"But, Gayle, the profit margins--"

I know they're super tight if not outright bullshit. I know it can take time to breed smooth-assed sheep. I get that. I do. But to consider any form of anesthesia too expensive when the goal is to produce more sellable fiber per sheep by getting rid of the problem area is NOT the answer.

Anyway, like I said, I just found this out. I just bought yarn from Juniper Moon for the first time (via Charlotte Yarn), and they had a "No Mulesing" graphic, so I looked it up. The case study I linked discusses the options outside of Mulesing, and it's not just "buy smooth-assed sheep", and I like that for a case study. They suggest clipping, which is a solution while waiting for breeding to work out if you're breeding yourself.

Then I got a ball of wool claiming "as we have been since we started - mulesing-free for all wool".

Which, sure, is very possible if a company is crunchy enough. But this is a company adding synthetics to sock wool, so they are not the level of mega crunchy to have been looking into it. They are also older than the most recent millennium.

So I decided to look at how on earth you can make that kinda claim.

Turns out, it's not very hard.

Mulesing only happens on sheep at risk of having a very specific species of fly cause myasis in the folds near their rear. Not all sheep breeds have enough skin or wool near their rear for that to be a problem. Merino sheep seem most affected. That species of fly doesn't survive everywhere. You can be pretty sure all wool you've ever used is mulesing free by not using Australian merino.

That doesn't mean it's more ethically produced or higher quality. It just means it's very unlikely someone partially skinned the sheep that grew it. My little ball of wool comes from South America. It came from a breed of sheep not profitable enough to be specified.

Prynhawn,

Right now Google estimates that there are around 36 million Merino sheep in Australia right now, so you’re right when you imagine that inspecting each sheep to make sure that they’re fly and maggot free would be a massive undertaking. That’s why mulesing is a thing-- it’s not the best solution, but it’s the one that’s practical over such a large scale.

Dr. Ferox has spoken before about how people in the wool industry are generally proud of the quality of their product and the welfare of their animals.

There are some sheep that are born with a gene called bare breech, meaning that they don’t grow wool on the area around their anus and tail. 

The reason that not every sheep has been bred to have this gene yet is because we need to be careful about inbreeding, but there does seem to be an interest in spreading the trait around. Hopefully there will be a time in the not too distant future where mulesing doesn’t need to be a thing.

In Australia we dock Merino sheep tails, and perform mulesing at a few weeks old because we have Lucilia cuprina, a pretty coloured fly with maggots that make a not-so-pretty mess of sheep.

These flies are ubiquitous, they are everywhere in Australia and they cause huge problems. The flies lay their eggs on damp sheep wool, but the maggots will eat both diseased and healthy flesh. The maggots will eat sheep alive.

Short of widespread insecticide use, which doesn’t really control the problem well and has environmental concerns, the most effective method for reducing flystrike in sheep (the maggot infestation) is reducing the amount of moisture that accumulates on the wool. However, even in the driest regions of Australia, sheep will still urinate and develop diarrhea, which moistens regions of their wool.

Crutching sheep, where a small amount of wool is shorn regularly around their anus/vulva to keep it short and clean, certainly can help, but this is most effective in breeds that are relatively smooth skinned, and in smaller enterprises were it’s easier to round up those sheep on a regular basis. 

Particularly in the case of Merinos in Australia, with the wrinkly skin around their bottoms, Mulesing is performed to cut this skin off, letting it heal with scar tissue. That’s as rough as it sounds, but it’s necessary to prevent fly strike and death-by-maggots in the sheep’s life.

There have been increasing access and push for pain relief to be used for this procedure, and there are some smooth-skinned lines, or lines of merino with no wool on the perineum. Genetic Mulesing would be ideal, because then no painful procedure would need to be done to the sheep, but there were only 7 Merino originally identified with this trait, and spreading their genetics through the approximately 70 million of Australia…well, it will take time.