Mulesing — the surgical removal of wrinkled skin around sheep breech — reduces flystrike risk but causes significant pain, driving reform efforts across the wool industry.
Mulesing represents a difficult welfare trade-off: a painful procedure prevents a welfare problem (blowfly strike) that is typically worse. The ethical question is whether the trade-off is necessary given available alternatives. Pain relief at mulesing is increasingly mandated and significantly reduces welfare harm during the procedure. However, the procedure remains inherently painful even with analgesia. Long-term elimination of mulesing requires transitioning to low-wrinkle genetics — a multi-decade breeding commitment that is underway but not complete. Retailers including H&M, ASOS, and others have set mulesing-free sourcing targets that create market incentives for genetic transition. The welfare direction of travel is clear; the pace of change remains contested.