PETA's position unclear for wool & sheep campaign

02 Aug '05

4 min read

The latest outburst by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk clearly indicates confusion in her organisation about its campaign against the Australian wool and sheep industry, according to AWI Chairman Ian McLachlan.

"PETA is obviously feeling the pressure of the AWI legal case and the severe criticism it has been subjected to in the US over the charging of two of its employees with 62 counts of animal cruelty arising from the killing and dumping of dogs taken from animal shelters," Mr McLachlan said.

"Last Thursday and Friday, AWI's legal team presented a substantial body of evidence before the court.

"There are a number of indications that the legal action is having an effect on PETA. They seem to have withdrawn their representatives from Australia and have scaled right down on their campaign here.

"One day we hear in the media that PETA is coming to Australia at the invitation of the Australian Woolgrowers Association (AWGA), then we get a total denial of that through PETA spokesman Matthew Rice."

Mr Rice told the ABC on 26 July that "the post-mulesing spray is much better than no painkiller at all, of course, but ... there are better ways to prevent sheep from being infected with flystrike".

Mr Rice went on to say that "the pressure will certainly increase as time goes on. The longer that the Australian wool industry digs in their heels and continues to mutilate animals and send millions of sheep to gruesome deaths overseas, PETA will continue to escalate our campaign to educate the international public about these practices".

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