Welfare issues for sheep

The main welfare issues affecting sheep are from mutilations, transport and illness caused by disease. The health problems of sheep are largely treatable or avoidable with good grazing, breeding and stockmanship. In some areas the trend towards so-called ‘easy-care’ larger flocks with fewer shepherds is raising concern that reduced supervision may affect lamb mortality and sheep welfare.

Mutilations

Lambs are routinely subjected to painful mutilations. The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) states that castration and tail docking of lambs “should not be undertaken without strong justification".

Male lamb castration - anaesthetic rarely used.

Castration

Many male lambs are castrated to prevent breeding, aid fattening and reduce aggression. Lambs are usually castrated by applying a tight ring, clamp or surgery. This is normally done without anaesthetic.

Tail docking

It is common for lambs to have their tails docked. This is partly to prevent the accumulation of faeces around the tail and reduce lesions and infections from flies. However, evidence shows that tail-docking is not necessary to maintain the health and welfare of lambs. Tail-docking is carried out with a knife, hot iron or tight ring around the tail.

Mulesing

Sheep mulesing, again without anaesthetic mostly

Mulesing is the surgical removal of sections of skin from around the tail of a sheep, usually with no anaesthetic. Mulesing is performed on around 80% of Merino wool-producing sheep in Australia to reduce the incidence of flystrike – lesions and infections caused by blowflies. Anaesthetics and anti-inflammatories would significantly reduce pain while closer inspections of flocks, use of chemicals and breeding could reduce the use of mulesing altogether. Mulesing is already being phased out in New Zealand and will begin to be phased out in Australia from 2010.

Ewes and lambing

The health and welfare standards adopted on many sheep farms during the lambing period are seriously inadequate. In the UK, up to 4% of ewes die at lambing. Many ewes also die during winter and spring because of poor body reserves to cope with winter and inadequate grazing. Many lambs are aborted or stillborn or die through disease, exposure and starvation. In the UK, as many as 15% of lambs do not survive.

Australia exports millions of sheep every year

Transport

Live sheep and lambs are frequently transported on long journeys around the world. For example, each year, around 1.5 million sheep and lambs as young as four weeks old, are sent to Italy for slaughter from Hungary, Romania, Poland and Spain. On EU journeys legislation is frequently ignored with animals not given the rest, food and water required. Sheep are regularly transported in overcrowded trucks with insufficient headroom. In hot weather overcrowding can contribute to poor ventilation and sheep are often unable to access or use drinking devices.

These issues can be avoided by choosing choosing higher welfare alternatives.