Mulesing - surgical removal of skin folds around the tail of merino sheep - is performed without anaesthesia to prevent flystrike, creating a painful welfare dilemma with available non-surgical alternatives.
The welfare case against mulesing is clear: removing large areas of skin without pain relief causes acute suffering during and for weeks after the procedure, while the wound heals. The welfare case for mulesing is also genuine - flystrike, where flies lay eggs in skin folds causing maggots to eat living tissue, is an agonizing death. The welfare imperative is to phase out mulesing by adopting selective breeding programs for bare-breech sheep, genetic testing, and flystrike surveillance - approaches that eliminate the welfare dilemma entirely.