H&M is the second largest retailer in Europe and has stores around the world, and now it no longer accepts wool from Australia. This came about after the Australian wool industry showed signs of hesitation on its plan to stop mulesing sheep by 2010. Though H&M admittedly uses only a “very small selection of merino wool“, the type of wool that comes from mulesed sheep, and an H&M spokesperson said the company wants “to take a stand to promote animal welfare.”
For those unfamiliar with mulesing, it’s named after John Mules – the first to “accidentally” develop the practice – and involves cutting off pieces of wrinkle skin from around the rear of a sheep to prevent flystrike. Flystrike leads to infection and eventually death, however mulesing is extremely painful and often done with little or no painkillers for the sheep. Enter PETA.
PETA heavily fought the practice, commonplace in Australia, and reached a tentative cease-fire with the nation’s wool industry (AWI) last summer (the Australian Wool Industry agreed to stop mulesing, and PETA had to agree to “conduct itself within the law”). It appears that the AWI is now reneging on its promise, and PETA is again up in arms.
Many retailers have already stopped importing wool from Australia because of the practice. Sweden-based H&M is the latest of them, saying, “H&M does not accept mulesing. The company has decided to direct its buying towards other countries of origin and other suppliers in Australia that can guarantee mulesing-free merino wool.”
May 10th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
A seriously interesting publish- but one I cannot agree with I’m afraid.
May 7th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
superbinformation with superb visuals. presentand adviseis better than just tell, in my view — especially with technical nuances.
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Good article you told us, continue updating your site, that’s better.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:00 am
There is a solution, breeding Merino sheep that do not produce wrinkle and do not need mulesing.
This is happening with great results in Australia.
The problem is, the traditional Merino breeders do not want to change or conform.
I hope they will realise soon that they are negatively affecting the future of the Australian wool industry.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
But….as the article says: “Flystrike leads to infection and eventually death, however mulesing is extremely painful and often done with little or no painkillers for the sheep” For those unfamiliar with flystrike, it means that flies lay their eggs in flaps of skin around the bum of the sheep. The hatching maggots then start to eat the sheep…alive. So what is better, the pain of being slowly eaten alive or having the short cut to remove the folds in which these flies lay their eggs?
November 7th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
shame on the australian industry. I am glad and proud that H&M stood against mulesing. More people and industries should join H&M beliefs
sarla