Sheeps

MUTILATIONS AND SUFFERING WITHOUT ANESTHESIA

Lambs are cut into the flesh, the tail is docked and cauterized by fire or with a hot blade, all without anesthesia. Tail docking is an extremely painful procedure: sheep feel the pain of the amputation of their spine, skin, and flesh. Tight rings are placed around their scrotum, again without anesthesia, which is extremely painful, so that their testicles wither and eventually drop off weeks later. When the testicles do not fall off fast enough, shearers cut them off with their shears. They also cut pieces of flesh from their rump. Mother ewes witness the scene and scream frantically as their lambs, twisting and crying in pain, are mutilated.

Subsequently, workers drop the lambs onto the ground or onto a blood-stained mat, where many of them fall heavily onto their bloody wounds. Many die of starvation or exposure before the age of 8 weeks.

BRUTAL SHEARING AND VIOLENCE

Paid by volume, shearers work at a breakneck pace and severely lacerate the sheep (large chunks of skin are cut off), summarily stitching up their wounds on the filthy floor where the shearing took place, without any analgesics.

As the sheep panic, they are pinned to the ground and shearers trample them, stand on their heads and necks, compress their throats, and kick them in the stomach. They violently mistreat the frightened animals, twist their necks and limbs, and slam their heads and bodies against the hardwood floor. Shearers also punch them in the face, goad them, and strike them on the head with metal clippers. Throwing sheep from a certain height causes injuries and fractures to the neck, limbs, etc.

LACK OF CARE AND DISEASES

No pain relief is given to sheep when they are pierced through the skin with an unsterilized needle to haphazardly stitch up bloody wounds caused by violent and rushed shearing. Some animals suffer from mastitis (a painful infection of the udders), uterine prolapse (descent of the uterus toward the vulva, or even its eversion), and bloody hooves. Injured or sick sheep receive no veterinary care. Many sheep die during shearing from a sort of cardiac arrest. We drag sheep that are unable to walk into a shed where we leave them to succumb.

We cut the throats of fully conscious sheep with a knife, then break their necks. Sheep show manifest signs of acute distress and pain for nearly a minute as the handler twists the head and neck and slits the throat. Some sheep struggle for two minutes.

Sheep deemed undesirable by the industry are loaded onto extremely overcrowded cargo ships and sent on a terrifying journey to the Middle East or North Africa, where they are slaughtered, often while fully conscious.