flickr / CC

Next! The British fashion giant Next, that is. The mega-retailer has announced that because the nefarious Australian wool industry has reneged on its promise to ban the mulesing mutilation (which involves hacking hunks of flesh off lambs' backsides) by 2010, Next will now only "source wool from outside Australia or from Australian sources which guarantee that mulesing with shears or clips has ceased."

"Next believes that the continuation of mulesing beyond the 2010 deadline previously self-imposed by the Australian sheep industry is unacceptable," the company announced in a statement. Next joins other leading retailers and designers—including Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland, H&M, American Eagle, Liz Claiborne, Hugo Boss, Perry Ellis International, Coldwater Creek, and many more—that have pledged not to use wool from mulesed lambs.

You can help stop this unnecessary mutilation by encouraging Talbots (one retailer that has failed to take action) to follow in Next's footsteps and stop purchasing Australian wool.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

And that would be Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), which is (surprise, surprise) reneging on its promise to end mulesing by 2010.

AWI will have had six years to stop a horrific practice that no other country engages in. New Zealand stopped the mulesing mutilation almost 10 years ago. If AWI does not meet the 2010 deadline, retailers around the world will take action by sourcing wool elsewhere.

AWI has only itself to blame for losing the world market by trying to delay the inevitable. Of course we were spot-on: AWI has chosen not to live up to its word and is still stuck in the 1930s. Australian wool is no longer the standard—it is now a symbol of the way greedy people have behaved by treating thinking, feeling animals as if they were inanimate commodities.

Despite the fact that leading retailers across Europe and North America are refusing to purchase wool from mulesed lambs, the Australian wool industry's most recent ludicrous scheme is to adopt an equally cruel and painful procedure called "clip mulesing," in which clips are attached to the folded skin on lambs' backsides, causing the skin to rot and fall off. Clips are not an alternative to the mulesing mutilation; they are simply a less bloody form of it. We are pleased, however, to see that the wool industry has finally responded to the complaints of dozens of retailers around the world who want to buy only wool from sheep who were not mulesed (not even with clips) and who have asked that wool from clip-mulesed sheep be identified on a mulesing declaration form.

As the Australian Weekly Times wrote, "For an organisation that purports to be a research and marketing body, the decision by Australian Wool Innovation to abandon the mulesing deadline is reckless, unwanted and unhelpful." This shows that your voices—and those of retailers who are demanding that Australia join the 21st century and stop mutilating lambs—are being heard in Australia.

Please help PETA continue to pressure the Australian government to do the right thing by taking a few short moments to write to Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to demand that mulesing be outlawed now. And, if you still wear animals even when so many wonderful alternatives exist, ask yourself why.

Posted by Tracy Reiman

theage / CC

The pressure is on for the Australian wool industry! Jiangsu Sunshine Group, a $1.8 billion Chinese textile company, is the world's largest buyer of Australian wool—and it's calling on the Aussie wool industry put an end to mulesing.

The mulesing mutilation is the practice of slicing chunks of flesh from around sheep's tails—without any pain relief—to prevent "flystrike" (i.e., to prevent sheep from being eaten alive by maggots in the folds of flesh on their rump). Flystrike is awful, of course, but there are plenty of humane alternatives to mutilation for flystrike prevention that are in use by many wool farmers. In fact, New Zealand has done away with mulesing altogether!

Sunshine's action will hopefully force folks like Australian Wool Innovation Chair Wal Merriman to abandon this cruel practice once and for all. In a recent article, Merriman thumbed his nose at retailers and consumers by admitting that he will continue to mules his sheep, despite the fact that a growing list of retailers, including H&M, Perry Ellis, Adidas, and many others, want only nonmulesed wool.

Sunshine said in its letter to the Federation of Australian Wool Organisations: "In the last three years, increasing requests have been made from our major international customers to provide product as made from non-mulesed Australian wool due to the strong pressure of the animal liberation movement."

In other words, keep those cards and letters coming!

Posted by Jeff Mackey

Australian vocalist Missy Higgins is no newcomer to PETA. A few years back, she graciously appeared in one of our most adorable pro-vegetarian ads ever. Now she is lending her star power to an equally adorable new PETA anti-fur ad.

Joining the ranks of Charlize Theron and Friday Night Lights actor Aimee Teegarden, the award-winning singer/songwriter took time out of her busy schedule to speak up for animals who are killed for their fur by appearing in our ad alongside the almost unbearably cute Izzy. Feast your eyes on this:

With a heart as beautiful as her voice, Missy wants to remind everyone that the fur industry is hell on Earth for animals. In the wild, animals trapped in steel-jaw traps can suffer in pain for days, often gnawing at their own limbs in an attempt to break free. On fur farms, animals spend their lives in cramped, dirty cages, frantically pacing and circling endlessly before workers snap their necks or kill them with poison gas or electrocution.

Compassionate animal guardians can't imagine seeing their four-legged friends endure such suffering, and they can't imagine that anyone could get paid to inflict such suffering on other animals, either.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

If you haven't given up wool yet, here are five reasons to make that commitment to animals now: Faith, Lily, Mae, Pete, and Lucy. These are some of the sheep whose suffering was documented by a group of concerned Australians who have been wrangling with do-nothing authorities to help a horribly neglected flock.

This is Faith before and after treatment for flystrike.

The investigators photographed the bodies of dead and dying sheep around a Smeaton, Australia, property. One of the carcasses was contaminating the only readily available water source for the living sheep.

Many of the sheep on the property are being eaten alive by maggots. This condition is called "flystrike," and it is preventable with proper attention and care. In Australia, sheep farmers use a barbaric mutilation called "mulesing" in a crude attempt to prevent flystrike, but it did not help Pete or Lucy, who had advanced flystrike and died soon after the group found them. Lucy had one of the worst cases of flystrike that one investigator had ever seen: "Severely fly struck she was close to death and of course extremely distressed. She was panting hard, eyes wide with terror but unable to rise. Lucy had been mulesed, however like millions of other sheep in this country still suffered the horrors of flystrike."

Lucy's flystrike was so debilitating she couldn’t get up off the ground.

Flies were eating away at Pete.

After repeated attempts to get the Department of Primary Industries to take action, local citizens attempted to help some of the ewes on the Smeaton property who had babies who depended on them for survival. Faith's injuries were successfully treated, but Lily and Mae had to be taken to a veterinarian and euthanized. Their lambs are unlikely to survive without them.

Lily's leg had been eaten away.

Mae's hindquarters were a typical result of flystrike.

The appalling conditions on the Smeaton farm are not an isolated case of neglect and abuse. Domesticated sheep are vulnerable to flystrike because they have been bred to have wrinkly skin that produces an unnatural amount of wool. Breeding for "bare breech" is one option that would make sheep less vulnerable, but, in Australia, which produces 30 percent of the world's wool, the vast flocks of sheep cannot be given the individual care and attention necessary to prevent flystrike and other illnesses. After enduring these conditions, Australian sheep are crammed onto filthy boats for live export to the Middle East—a trip that many do not survive—where they are dragged to slaughter and have their throats cut while they are conscious and struggling.

The best way to help Australian sheep is to avoid buying any wool, as it is difficult to know where wool originates. Urge the Australian prime minister to make this kind of cruelty to lambs illegal.

Posted by Heather Drennan

Yesterday, PETA held a press conference in Vancouver to announce our ramped-up campaign against the Canadian seal slaughter. We'll be running the campaign up to and through the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, which will be held in the city. Our goal is to switch some of the focus from Canada's Games to Canada's shame—the annual massacre of hundreds of thousands of baby seals. To illustrate the worldwide outrage over Canada's despicable seal slaughter, our international affiliates also held protests in Australia and France yesterday.

PETA's official press conference in Canada

PETA Asia-Pacific's demo in Australia

PETA France's demo in Paris

PETA Germany's demo in Berlin

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Australian wool farmers are very fond of the myth that the mulesing mutilation (cutting the rump flesh off completely conscious lambs) is the most effective way to prevent flystrike, but we know it's only done because it's cheaper than more humane methods of controlling the affliction. These photos, recently taken on a paddock in Victoria, show several sheep suffering from absolute misery, severe neglect and flystrike, despite the fact that some had been mulesed! Yeah. Those farmers sure do care.

Many sheep found on this paddock had such severe cases of flystrike or were so starved or otherwise neglected that they required emergency treatment provided by caring civilians. Some were suffering so badly that they had to be euthanized immediately. Fortunately, an Australian animal rights activist has called for an intervention by the local authorities and has submitted this formal complaint (So far there's been no response yet.)

Australian farmers get away with cutting lambs open and leaving them to be eaten alive by maggots under the pretext of keeping them healthy. Does that sound wrong to anyone else? Please help stop this cruelty by boycotting Australian wool and informing the farmers that mulesing is wrong.

Posted by Lianne Turner

photobucket / CC

G'day, mates! I'm stoked to tell you that the blokes in Victoria, Australia, have given the flick to cruel mousetraps. It's a rip snorter of a decision, and our hats are off to ya. Onya, Aussies!

Translation: Hello! Great news: The government in Victoria, Australia, just passed its new and improved Prevention of Cruelty to Animals regulations and (drum roll, please) glue traps are now highly regulated and can only be used by commercial pest-control operators and only after they get approval from Victoria's agriculture minister. This is a landmark victory for animals and will significantly cut down on the number of glue traps used in Victoria. Yay!

It seems the whole world is realizing that glue traps are cruel and unnecessary (it's about time!). Animals who become trapped in the sticky adhesive substance suffer for days before succumbing to starvation, dehydration, suffocation, and shock. The torturous conditions drive animals to rip off patches of skin and fur while struggling to escape, and many even attempt to chew off their own limbs. Safeway, Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, the Dollar Tree, and now the whole state of Victoria have banned the cruel traps. So come on, Lowe's! Won't you please stop selling them already?

You know what's even more amazing about Victoria's new regulations? The passing of the updated resolutions not only strictly regulates glue traps but also does the following:

• Bans the use of twisted bits on horses
• Bans the transportation of dogs and livestock in the boot of a car
• Restricts the use of some electric-shock devices on animals

You can check out the full version of the regulations here.

Anyone up for a victory barbie?

Posted by Liz Graffeo

I'm pretty sure my mother has set up Google News alerts for my name. So when I saw a News of the Weird–esque article in Australia's Weekly Times about an Aussie senator, Bill Heffernan, taking jabs at me to the media by talking about my—ahem—circumcision, I knew it was just a matter of time before she'd see it too. Proactively, I e-mailed her the article with the subject line, "Should I be honored by this?"

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what an elected official was doing talking about my naughty bits to the press. Well, there's a perfectly, um, reasonable explanation: I oversee PETA's campaign against mulesing—a cruel mutilation in which Australian farmers hack chunks of lambs' flesh from their backsides without as much as an aspirin for pain relief. It's the cheapest way to prevent a fly infestation that is dangerous—but that could be prevented if farmers would just look after the sheep instead of abandoning them in open fields and forgetting about them until slaughter or shearing. So, in his frustration over the fact that we've been getting major retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Perry Ellis to stop using Australian wool, Senator Heffernan lashed out. Check out this juicy excerpt from the article:

Last week [Senator Heffernan] turned his verbal blowtorch on animal activist Matt Prescott from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals [sic], after Prescott flagged the wool industry would die if it failed to ban mulesing.

"I'll bet he's been circumcised," Senator Heffernan said, the inference being that it is no different to a lamb being mulesed.

"I hope he has. I'll be putting that to him. That bloke needs to come over here, have a look at our sheep and learn some home truths."

My reply? "Dear Senator Heffernan, You were right: I have indeed been circumcised. Fortunately, my parents didn't perform the cut in a field with a pair of garden shears, and they didn't remove my flesh because of a financial interest. No such luck for lambs." (You can read the full reply here.)

My mother's reply? "I'm not sure this is a compliment, but I guess you can't beat a senator talking publicly about your circumcision."

Posted by Matt Prescott

wikimedia / CC

Remember how people were disgusted when we suggested putting human breast milk in ice cream? Compare that to the latest news story out of Australia—the one about the family of vacationers who discovered that, no, that wasn't chocolate ice cream; it was more of a dookie congelée. Now whose ice cream is gross, hmm?

That's right—a pair of guests at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney were served a nice dish of gelato, complete with its own poop garnish. They believe that they were served the chocolate poo chunk as an act of "kitchen revenge"—the couple had complained about some loud music earlier that evening.

You know what my favorite part of this story is? That "DNA analysis is now being carried out to determine whether the poo was of human or (sic) animal origin." ("I went and threw up, obviously," the woman said. No kidding!)

On the other hand, as Alexia over at PETA Europe points out, is this so very much worse than the frozen secretions in milk? I mean, yeah, it is disgusting, but at least it's not full of pus, right? And hey, both get squeezed out of an animal. … I'm just sayin'.

And wait a minute—it's not like a lot of people aren't regularly eating poop anyway. Think about it: Animals on factory farms are stuck in their own waste all day long—is it any surprise that meat is so often contaminated with feces? And people wonder where salmonella comes from ….

Posted by Amanda Schinke

directnews / CC

Regular readers know that mulesing is a process whereby sheep farmers in Australia turn lambs upside-down and cut off the skin and flesh on their rumps with a pair of gardening shears and without any pain relief. Now there are reports that Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), in response to PETA's campaign to end mulesing, has developed another new mulesing alternative, but being hopeful of progress by AWI is something that makes me nervous to no end.

This alternative is an injection that smoothes out the animals' skin (when it's all full of folds, maggots can hatch and eat the sheep alive). The injection is not perfect—the animals are still stressed out from being handled—but it seems relatively painless, which is a huge step forward in embracing the concept that less pain doesn't equal no pain).

We won't break out the champagne yet. In 2004, AWI agreed to end mulesing by 2010, but they've been dragging their heels disgracefully. Then they developed a different (but still very painful) type of skin-removal technique called "clip mulesing," in which big clips are clamped onto lambs' bottoms so tightly that the flesh dies and falls off, and called it "humane." Rotting, dying skin. Ewe.

So we raised a ruckus in the clothing retail industry, causing companies like H&M, Perry Ellis, and Adidas to reject all wool from mulesed lambs (including those mulesed using the hideous clips).

The injection, however, just might be a most-welcome forward movement for all those Aussie lambs.

Posted by Matt Prescott

Our good friends over at PETA Asia-Pacific got some unexpected attention during a protest outside a KFC restaurant in Sydney, Australia, when the police showed up offering the protesters blankets and a free ride to the station.

The three ladies—who had crammed their bodies into a wire cage to protest the cruel methods KFC uses to raise and slaughter the billions of birds that fill its buckets each year—were wrapping up the peaceful demonstration when the swoop occurred (swoop, geddit?) and arrested the activists for ... indecent exposure. Of course, there had been no indecent anything, and the ladies were later released. An apology is in order.

The demonstration was a magnificent follow-up to Pamela Anderson's Australian rendezvous last week, when the actor hand-delivered a letter to the managing director of KFC Australia's parent company telling him exactly what she thinks of KFC suppliers' scalding birds to death.

All our Australian supporters are pushing for KFC restaurants to adopt the same animal welfare standards now applied to chickens killed for KFCs in Canada. The PETA Asia-Pacific crew reached even more blokes and sheilas! Well done!

Check out photos from the demonstration below!

scopefeatures.com.au

scopefeatures.com.au

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

Pamela Anderson Visits a KFC in Australia

OK, how predictable was that title? Here's something else that's predictable (in a good way this time): Devoted PETA supporter Pamela Anderson has taken yet another opportunity to speak up for animals.

The walking fantasy with a heart of gold is in Australia for the filming of the reality show Big Brother. Earlier today, Pam hand-delivered a copy of her letter to Albert Baladi, managing director of KFC's parent company in Australia, to speechless-but-drooling staff at a local KFC. She also gave the manager a copy of her explicit video—no, not that video…the other startling exposé (narrated by Pam), which reveals that KFC suppliers scald chickens to death in defeathering tanks and use other outdated and cruel gathering and slaughter methods.

In her letter, Pam writes:

I've been in Australia filming Big Brother, in which my housemates and I are confined and sealed off from the outside world, much like the chickens who are crammed inside barns for KFC. Fortunately, I won't be stomped to death, have my legs broken or be scalded to death in a tank of hot water—yet, as PETA's undercover videos have revealed, the chickens raised for KFC's restaurants in Australia often suffer these abuses.

Pam urges Baladi to adopt the same animal welfare standards now applied to chickens killed for KFCs in Canada, which are a result of PETA's campaign and will substantially improve the living and dying conditions of chickens.

And a little eye candy for your day: pictures of Pam in action!

The Scene In Gold Coast

Posted by Grace Friedan

news / CC

PETA supporter and all-around smoking-hot animal advocate Imogen Bailey is joining the almost-global (thanks, KFCs in Canada!) campaign against KFC. PETA Asia-Pacific's supermodel buddy wrote a letter to Albert Baladi—managing director of Yum! Restaurants International South Pacific, the parent company of KFC in the Asia-Pacific region—asking him to adopt the same animal welfare plan that has recently been adopted in Canada by eliminating some of its suppliers' worst abuses of chickens. Imogen also urged Baladi to ask David Novak, CEO of Yum! Brands in the U.S., to make the same. In her letter, Imogen wrote:

As you might know, I once helped open a KFC restaurant in Gungahlin, ACT. However, if I knew then what I know now about KFC, I never would have taken part. I was shocked to learn ... that KFC has refused to demand that its suppliers eliminate the worst abuses suffered by the more than 850 million chickens raised and killed for its restaurants every year.

As the head of KFC in Australia, you have the power [to] improve the way that chickens are treated, and I hope you will take action to do so. Take it from me: No "chick" wants to be treated like a piece of meat.

Imogen goes on to discuss problems that were documented during an undercover investigation into a KFC supplier in Australia. The undercover investigator found chickens who were suffering from broken limbs and failing organs because of the animals' unnatural growth rates. The investigator also documented living birds forced to live amongst dead bodies in a long, barren shed.

KFC isn't the only animal issue close to this beauty's heart: She's also done some fantastic anti-fur ads and compelling (not to mention hot) ads that shine the light on cruelty to elephants and bulls. Check 'em out here! Animals—and everyone who had to pick their jaws up off the floor after checking out this ad—thank you, Imogen!

Posted by Sean Conner

This one made me laugh out loud.

Click for a larger version

To check out the archives of past strips, click here.

“Lucy” the sheep is at it again. Today, she joined Aussie Prime Minister John Howard on his morning walk in Sydney, and she’ll be making regular appearances again soon. I mean really, how can Australian politicians ignore the issues of mulesing and live export when there’s an activist in a giant sheep costume everywhere they go? Umm, OK, don’t answer that.

“Lucy” the sheep

And here’s a story about the newly formed PETA Australia. Yes, I said PETA Australia! More news on that front soon . . .

I can't think why. We had this all set up with the billboard company and everything, and then they changed their minds at the last second. Is it possible that there are some sheep farmers who don't want people asking them difficult questions? For more info on mulesing, and our campaign to stop it, please click here.

And for the inevitable knee-jerk response from sheep farmers who are going to say "But we have to slice these sheep up -- it's the only way to prevent flystrike!": 1.) This crisis is your fault in the first place for breeding sheep who can’t survive in the climate. 2.) Here is a long, painstakingly researched list of humane, effective alternatives to mulesing. And 3.) If you refuse to accept that there’s a way to do your job without hideously torturing animals, well, then maybe it’s time to get a new job.

Remember Dan Mathews’ trip to Australia for the launch of his book Committed: A Rabble Rouser’s Memoir there? Well, here’s a great profile that came out yesterday from a huge Australian gay and lesbian website called Same Same. There's a kickass video at the end too.

With The Pretenders set to play Sydney, Chrissie Hynde made a quick stop to unveil a new PETA ad designed to draw attention to a gruesome procedure that Australian lambs are subjected to. The launch comes just a month after Pink narrated our video exposé of the wool industry. This ad isn't exactly PETA's most lighthearted work, but the procedure, which involves an Australian farmer, a frightened lamb, and a pair of gardening shears, doesn't really allow for a whole lot of levity. Chrissie, whose tireless dedication to helping animals is nothing short of heroic, unveiled the ad at the Sydney Opera House today. Incidentally, this is why I don't wear wool.