DianaSweet Sweden wants Drug Mules(ing)
March 23rd 2008 00:09
Sweden has agreed to accept wool from ‘mulesed’ Australian sheep on the grounds that a pain-relief spray is used. Apparently Sweden does not like to see itself banning imports, and has stated that as long as mulesing is being ‘phased out’ and progress is being made in this direction it will continue to trade with Australia.
The commercially available spray, Tri-Solfen, has so far been used on a voluntary basis by wool growers. European buyers of Australian wool want this pain relief to be made compulsory, until the date of mulesing phase-out, 2010. Wool Producer’s Australia president, Don Hamblin, says use of the spray should be ‘encouraged’ but not made compulsory.
Frankly, Australia is lucky for this brief reprieve. Things could so easily have gone the other way.
It is frustrating to read therefore in the rural press some farmers commenting on PETA coming here to get a ‘real picture of flystrike’ or, how ‘we’re not going to make pain-relief compulsory for farmers’.
Guys: get over it; move on. The issue is no longer about whys or wherefores of mulesing. If nobody wants to buy our wool cos they don’t like our husbandry methods, it’s up to us to do something about it, or accept that our wool won’t sell.
Simple.
Meanwhile, a naturally bare-breeched sheep, called a Dohne, bred in South Africa from Merinos, could be another answer for the vexing mulesing issue.
See, some daggy people have not skirted the issued but instead stopped bleating and wool-gathering about being made a mules of and have sheepishly gone and Dohne something about it!
The commercially available spray, Tri-Solfen, has so far been used on a voluntary basis by wool growers. European buyers of Australian wool want this pain relief to be made compulsory, until the date of mulesing phase-out, 2010. Wool Producer’s Australia president, Don Hamblin, says use of the spray should be ‘encouraged’ but not made compulsory.
Frankly, Australia is lucky for this brief reprieve. Things could so easily have gone the other way.
It is frustrating to read therefore in the rural press some farmers commenting on PETA coming here to get a ‘real picture of flystrike’ or, how ‘we’re not going to make pain-relief compulsory for farmers’.
Guys: get over it; move on. The issue is no longer about whys or wherefores of mulesing. If nobody wants to buy our wool cos they don’t like our husbandry methods, it’s up to us to do something about it, or accept that our wool won’t sell.
Simple.
Meanwhile, a naturally bare-breeched sheep, called a Dohne, bred in South Africa from Merinos, could be another answer for the vexing mulesing issue.
See, some daggy people have not skirted the issued but instead stopped bleating and wool-gathering about being made a mules of and have sheepishly gone and Dohne something about it!
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