PETA has put a new mulesing peace deal on the table. The animal rights group’s three-point plan is being taken seriously by wool leaders and offers hope of an end to the four-year-long crisis.
Negotiations to end the mulesing dilemma could start within weeks if Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and the Sheep and Wool Industry Taskforce decide to talk with PETA.
While AWI is yet to formally respond, it is understood previous offers put to PETA may be revitalised in order to achieve peace.
Negotiating the future of breech clips, promoting bare-breech breeding strategies and adopting various pain relief measures could be put on the table in exchange for PETA leaving the wool industry and retailers alone.
The deal could also solve the emerging welfare issues of castraton and tail docking, which are included in new codes of practice.
Speaking from the United States this week, spokesman for People for the Ethical Treament of Animals (PETA) Matt Prescott said his organisation was willing to walk away from the issue and stop harassing retailers if breech clips were shelved and bare-breech breeding more widely adopted.
Mr Prescott said PETA was firmly against the clips and was now lobbying retailers to boycott Australian wool if the clips became widely used.
“No retailers that we have talked to in recent months have accepted clips,” Mr Prescott said.
“They all recognise that breech clips still cause pain by cutting circulation off – even with pain relief this process is unneccesary.
“There are more humane solutions such as early crutching and jetting and of course bare-breech breeding.”
According to AWI up to $7 million has been spent developing the clip technology to date including on the development of a biodegradable corn starch clip.
However, Mr Prescott said PETA had been impressed with the development of an intradermal alternative to surgical mulesing by Cobbett Technologies.
“We are impressed with it so far from an animal welfare perspective,” he said.
Private researchers have been injecting a known varicose vein treatment into the breech area by air pressure, killing a layer of skin that heals and stretches the area without hair.
Sheep and Wool Industry taskforce head Norm Blackman said the industry was taking the offer seriously.
“PETA has put a lot of resources into this campaign and has a lot of issues to put energy into,” Dr Blackman said.
“This may be a sign that it is looking for a way out.
“But I am somewhat skeptical of the deal given PETA’s behaviour in the past.”
Dr Blackman, just back from meeting dozens of retailers in the US and Europe, said many of the retailers he had spoken to understood the clips were part of an interim solution to mulesing.
News of the new peace deal comes on the back of claims by PETA that two more Swedish retailers have joined the boycott.
AB Lindex and RND Retail and Brands have almost 800 stores across 12 countries.
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