An upper house committee on September 24 considered a bill amending the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to ban mulesing sheep from 2022 and making pain relief mandatory in certain procedures involving stock animals.
The amendment was put forward by Mark Pearson from the Animal Justice Party.
Mulesing is the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the buttocks of a sheep to prevent the parasitic infection flystrike.
Committee chairman Mark Banasiak said the report recommended the bill not proceed in its current form.
“This bill raised fundamental questions about what is in the best interests of sheep and other animals involved in stock procedures,” he said.
“On the one hand, the industry believes that mulesing, as the most effective prevention against flystrike, must be allowed to continue if sheep flocks in NSW are going to be protected.
“On the other hand, animal welfare groups believe the practice is barbaric and believe it should be phased out as soon as possible.”
The committee concluded that banning mulesing from January 1, 2022 and making the use of pain relief mandatory in certain stock procedures, as the bill proposes, is not the right way forward.
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