Mulesing involves surgically removing skin folds around the breech of Merino sheep to prevent flystrike, but it causes significant pain and alternatives are increasingly available.
Mulesing causes acute and severe pain at the time of the procedure and chronic pain during wound healing that can last weeks. Untreated, the wounds are also vulnerable to secondary flystrike during healing. The procedure is performed on millions of lambs annually in Australia without anaesthesia, representing a massive volume of preventable suffering. The New Zealand experience demonstrates that flystrike can be controlled without mulesing through alternative selection and management approaches. Transitioning to pain-relief-required mulesing as an interim step, and selective breeding for breech plainness as the longer-term solution, are practical pathways to improved welfare.