NEWS: PETA Bears Bottoms Against Aussie Wool In Washington

PETA, People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals are once again campaigning publicly urging international retailers to boycott Australian Wool in a protest outside the Australian embassy in Washington. The campaign is mainly against mulesing by shearers who remove the skin from around the sheeps bottom to stop flies laying maggots. The activists were nearly naked, covered in blood and painted with Australian flags on their buttocks.



PETA cannot really expect anyone to take them serious with the idiotic themes they come up with in their protests. Yes it does serve to call attention to the group and allow people to know their cause, a lost cause but the attention is focused in their idiotic pranks and how foolish they are. What will they come up with next. Its better than hollywood drama.

But as far as boycotting the wool is concerned, the practise is carried out, painfully and maybe even cruelly on sheep here in Australia for a reason.

It does come down to dollars and cents or sense in this case. If the mulesing is not carried out, then the sheep get flyblown with maggots, suffer terrible infections from the Australian climate and often die. As well as damaging the wool, its a loss of stock and the sufferance of flyblown or flystrike as named in the article, is a lot worse for the sheep, much more agonising and painful in the hot hot Australian heat, than the quick job of the mulesing.

I fail to see what these people think having my nation's flag on their behind, stark naked in front of our embassy would achieve anything. It just makes them look like a laughing stock of imbeciles.

This PETA is rather short-sighted; If I were a sheep, I'd rather have my behind skinned slightly than have it infested with maggots in the long run, dying a horrible death. And if I were the farmer, I'd rather have the sheep alive and continue producing wool than letting the poor things die.

Originally posted by Mayet
But as far as boycotting the wool is concerned, the practise is carried out, painfully and maybe even cruelly on sheep here in Australia for a reason.

It does come down to dollars and cents or sense in this case. If the mulesing is not carried out, then the sheep get flyblown with maggots, suffer terrible infections from the Australian climate and often die. As well as damaging the wool, its a loss of stock and the sufferance of flyblown or flystrike as named in the article, is a lot worse for the sheep, much more agonising and painful in the hot hot Australian heat, than the quick job of the mulesing.

I remember an interview with the head of PETA where this was explained to her in great depth.. her solution to this was to 'just brush them off'. Yep.. twenty thousand sheep. She said farmers could afford to hire several 'sheep brushers' and they could follow the sheep around all day making sure there are no flies hanging around them. Their ignorance is offensive.. and I hate the fact that stupid people have got the gall to where the aussie flag on their arses.

Oh dear i had to laugh when I read your reply. I had this mental image of all these PETA idiots running around naked in the paddocks under the hot Australian sun with Aussie flags painted on their butts holding huge feather fly brushes, swatting flies off sheeps bums.

I think if this is their way of gaining attention for their protest, it surely has worked. That's what protesting's about.

'Mulesing' is something I'd never heard of. It sounds terribly painful, but I understand the need for it. And people everywhere cut off dogs' tails and crop their ears for COSMETIC reasons, so I think the health benefit of mulesing is evident when compared to some of the things people do to animals.

I cut the hair around my dogs' bums, but there are only 2 of them.

Sometimes I don't understand PETA's priorities, but in this case, I have no trouble with their form of protest. At least they're not throwing blood on people or scaring children. So, this doesn't bother me at all... as long as they remain standing fully upright...

I wonder how successful they are in their cause. I wonder how often they actually get practices changed. Or is it all just PR for PETAt?

I don't know how successful they are, but I always do get a good grin out of these things. In my view it’s a humorous way of bringing attention to an issue. In the view of others, apparently, it’s an offensive way of doing it. I always get this image in my mind involving a sweet, little old lady; she’s either shocked and horrified by the bold public display of nude adult bodies or she’s intensely interested as she carefully inspects each one to see who’s got the best set of goods. I think it’s a hoot!

Actually, though, I think the shock method of protest does accomplish it’s goal a lot of the time. It’s a method that’s as old as dirt. Shocking behavior gets people’s attention. Once you have their attention you then deliver the message. Pretty simple.

Take this incident, for example. I doubt it would have made it to this board had the protestors been fully clothed. It wouldn’t have gotten anyone’s attention that way. Strip naked and slap a flag on your butt, though, and EVERYONE will hear about it. I know I wouldn’t have learned anything about the practice of mulesing had those folks been wearing anything. So, in this case I’d have to say their method of protest was effective.

Personally, I got a chuckle out of it. Others took offense. Either way, though, it did cause the issue of mulesing to be discussed on this board, and to that end they accomplished their goal.

Next I expect to hear about the American Skin Graph Society holding a mass Streak-a-thon in downtown New York City. Now that would be funny!!