Wool production involves annual shearing and various husbandry practices that have significant welfare implications, including the risk of injury during shearing, flystrike, and the welfare debate around mulesing.
Wool production creates welfare challenges across the production cycle. Shearing, while necessary, causes acute stress — sheep are physically restrained in unfamiliar positions, and cuts from shearing blades are common without adequate shearer training. Flystrike represents one of the most severe welfare emergencies in sheep farming: maggots consume living tissue causing intense pain, and affected animals can die within days if untreated. The mulesing debate illustrates a real welfare trade-off: the procedure causes acute pain but prevents the often more severe chronic suffering of recurrent flystrike. Pain relief provision during mulesing and the development of effective alternatives — including selective breeding for reduced skin folds and non-surgical treatments — represent the most constructive welfare pathways forward.