Mulesing - removing skin around the breech of Merino sheep - is a painful procedure used to prevent flystrike, but effective alternatives are reducing its use in Australian wool production.
The mulesing debate encapsulates a genuine welfare trade-off: acute procedural pain versus prevention of the potentially worse suffering of flystrike. Flystrike causes horrific suffering as larvae consume living flesh. However, evidence increasingly supports the viability of alternatives - selective breeding for plain-bodied sheep with less skin wrinkle, targeted treatments during high-risk periods, and improved pasture and shearing management. The Australian wool industry has committed to phasing out mulesing but progress has been slow. Pain relief during mulesing, where it occurs, is the minimum standard; elimination through alternatives is the welfare ideal.