Gross Things In Your Life: Rated for Gross Factor: Warning

Dunno. Agribusiness didn't exist when I was out chasing animals on horses...

It may be a climate thing, too?

Possibly the sheep involved in your area were crossbreds. Mulsing is/was practiced on merinos. but like I said while some farmers just did it as a cost saving measure.

Prolly to do with numbers/types of flies, I'd think. Definitely the merino thing, from what little I've read.

What is wrong with them that there are maggots in them? Good grief.

I saw a special about treating diabetics with foot sores with maggots. I seriously don't think I could do it. Honestly. I know you wouldn't feel it but just the thought of what was wriggling under that bandage.

They get crap and wee in their bum wool, which often irritates their bums, and can cause sores, and it attracts flies. The flies lay their eggs and the maggots get into the flesh of the sheep and eat it....it is horrible and terrible for the poor sheep.

Crutching is shearing their bums ("the removal of wool from around the tail and between the rear legs of a sheep") so the muck doesn't stick around,.

Mulesing is the surgical removal of strips of wool-bearing wrinkle skin from around the breech of a sheep.

Mulesing hurts like hell...especially if the cockies are too mean/poor to use anaesthetic sprays.

Mulesing is more effective.

Crutching needs to be done regularly, combined with dipping, which is ghetting the sheep to swim through pesticide-added water.

It's a lot of work, since there may be thousands of sheep spreed around hundreds of square miles.

Keeping in mind that even animals that produce high-quality fiber do not carry much monetary value as individuals, and each treatment cuts into the bottom line...

That's where the crunch comes on how seriously we regard cruelty to animals...whether we make laws regarding certain practices that will have a financial effect.

Indeed. Does the wool industry have a powerful lobby? Do the animal rights folks? In the absence of either, would lawmakers shy away from making significant changes for fear of being viewed as extremists, or tools of extremists?

Both do...though I think foreign groups like PETA have more say than any home-grown group......

Damned if I know about law-makers.

Does PETA actually have pull in Oz? They're widely regarded as a fringe group in the U.S., even by many who share some of the their goals.

Well, they had an effect on the mulesing thing....they seem to be able to convince people they threaten markets.

And a group (not sure if it was them or another) has managed to scare my state government into not getting rid of a bunch of koalas which are destroying habitat on Kangaroo Island. (Small island off our coast which is a tourist mecca).

The poor koalas are not native to the island...got moved there by someone who thought it'd be cute...and they have multiplied enormously and are now busy destroying large tracts of bush.

They present a real threat to the ecology there, and will, of course, starve to death once they have destroyed enough bush.

Because so much of the tourist market is so nuts about their cuteness, the government knew it would be a problem just to kill them...so they tried a very expensive neutering program, which failed.

Killing was then discussed, and also trying to catch the little buggers and taking them back to the mainland...but there are plenty already there on the mainland, and they are very territorial, and hard to catch, and catching them stresses them a lot, and is very expensive, and they'd likely just die miserably....and a campaign began featuring lots of photos of undeniably cute koalas... and...well...they're still destroying the place while everyone wonders what to do.

A friend of mine is the biologist who publicized the problem, and ended up suggesting killing them.....he and his family got all kinds of death threats, and nasty phone calls in the middle of the night and such.

Not that the poor koalas have done anything except what animals do.

Sigh.

I'd not want to deal with the PR nightmare of being the Koala Killer.

Though given your historical and ongoing problems with invasive species down there, you'd there'd be a pretty good understanding of the problem. Maybe not so much among folks isolated in the eastern cities?

Yeah....

ya...........

You asked for it...

Nothing like a good bot fly removal.

that was gross...did you see that big hole in her head? <shiver>

eeeeewwww.....