Sheep Welfare: Lambing, Mulesing, and Mountain Farming Challenges

Sheep welfare encompasses a wide range of challenges from intensive lowland lambing systems to extensive hill farming and the controversial practice of mulesing in Australia.

Key Facts

Sheep are highly social, emotionally sensitive animals with good long-term memory for individual faces, including both sheep and human faces
Mulesing — surgical removal of skin around the breech to prevent flystrike — is a painful procedure performed without adequate analgesia in most Australian flocks
New Zealand banned mulesing in 2018; Australia has not, though industry pressure and retailer commitments have driven some adoption of pain relief protocols
Lambing mortality in the UK averages 5-8% of lambs born but can exceed 20% in poor years, with cold, starvation, and dystocia the main causes
Foot rot, flystrike, and internal parasites represent major welfare challenges in sheep farming that are often under-treated due to the economics of extensive systems

Welfare Considerations

Sheep welfare is shaped by both the practices applied to them and the scale and extensiveness of sheep farming, which makes individual monitoring difficult. Mulesing is the most internationally recognised welfare issue in sheep farming, but chronic under-treatment of lameness, parasites, and dystocia in extensive systems affects far larger numbers of animals globally. Welfare improvement in sheep farming requires both specific practice reforms like mulesing abolition and systemic improvements in the feasibility and cost of veterinary care in extensive systems.

What You Can Do

Avoid wool products from mulesed sheep by choosing certified non-mulesed or synthetic alternatives when buying wool
Support the phase-out of mulesing through retailer and brand commitments to source only non-mulesed wool
Advocate for pain relief to be mandatory for all routine husbandry procedures in sheep including mulesing, castration, and tail docking
Support extensive sheep farming welfare improvement programmes that address lambing mortality and disease management
Raise awareness of sheep welfare issues including mulesing with consumers who buy wool and lamb products