PETA Releases Shocking New Footage From Inside Victorian Shearing Shed

6 July 2022

Eyewitness Video: Bleeding Ewe’s Gaping Wound Stitched Without Pain Relief

Birregurra – A new and gruesome video filmed inside an Australian shearing shed has come to light, as People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shares eyewitness footage documenting the mistreatment of a ewe earlier this year. The video shows the sheep – bleeding badly from an injury inflicted during shearing – being held between the knees of a shearer, who is crudely stitching up her gaping wound without administering any pain relief. The shearer then mops up the animal’s blood with her own fleece.

“Yet again, abusive treatment of sheep has been documented within an Australian wool operation. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last,” says PETA’s Emily Rice. “Anyone who visits WoolFacts.com will be confronted with stomach-churning footage from inside wool operations in Australia and overseas, all of it revealing egregious cruelty to these gentle, intelligent prey animals.”

Video footage gathered during investigations into more than 100 wool industry operations around the world has revealed systemic cruelty to sheep over the years. Eyewitnesses have documented shearers punching and throwing sheep, beating them with clippers, and standing on their necks. In one Victorian shearing shed, a shearer cut the vaginal prolapse of a female sheep, who was likely in labour, before using her own wool to wipe her blood up off the floor.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that wool has been not only humane-washed but also green-washed, despite the fact that the Made-By Environmental Benchmark for Fibres ranks wool as a “Class E” fibre, the worst category possible, based on the greenhouse gas emissions, human toxicity, eco-toxicity, and energy, water, and land use involved in its production.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.au.