Sheep in Australia
Sheep - a harsh life
There
are around 120 million sheep in Australia. Almost one quarter of
these are kept in the arid and semi-arid inland areas where
temperatures can be extreme and droughts are common.
It is a myth that sheep are well suited to Australian conditions. In fact, large numbers of sheep and lambs die, and many more suffer.
Up to 3 million sheep a year die of flystrike. Blowflies lay their eggs on sheep, and when they hatch, maggots eat into the flesh of living sheep.
Thousands of newly shorn adult sheep die in cold and wet weather. Many are shorn in the coldest months of the year, and then are kept in bare paddocks with no shelter or windbreaks.
Around 20% of all lambs die within the first few weeks of life. This figure can rise to 50% in bad seasons, and is usually 30-40% for twins. Most of the deaths are due to exposure in cold, wet weather and starvation when lambs are not getting enough milk from their mothers. This can happen when the female sheep are not fed well enough or when their udders are damaged by shearing.
Lambs suffer several painful mutilations. Their tails are cut off, most of them are mulesed, and males are castrated. In the mules operation, slices of skin are cut off the buttocks without any pain killers to produce a large scar. The scar is less attractive to blowflies. All of these mutilations are very painful.
Eventually all sheep, even those raised for wool, are trucked to slaughterhouses. For many sheep this is a very long journey, crowded into trucks, without food and water for lengthy periods.
For more details, including references, go to The sheep industry in Australia.