Tennis champion supports PETA campaign (Martina Navratilova comes out against mulesing)

ABC News Radio. ^ | Friday, 28/01/2005

[presidio9]

Tennis star Martina Navratilova has used her appearance at the Australian Open to support the campaign against mulesing by animal rights group, PETA.

Ms Navratilova has written to the Prime Minister John Howard, asking him to act immediately to stop the 'cruel and horrific' practice of mulesing.

Ms Navratilova was unavailable to comment this morning, due to tennis commitments.

[socal_parrot]

OK, I'll bite. What's that?

[Mr. K]

mulesing

Mulesing is an operation where skin approximately 164 X 94mm is cut from the buttocks and tails of conscious lambs. This removes the folds that attract the blowfly and cause maggot infestation. No anaestectic is used.

[cyborg]

Pretty disgusting. It involves cutting away flesh from a live animal.

[Nataku X]

If it prevents infection on the animal itself, what's the problem?

[cyborg]

without anesthesia?

[GVnana]

This removes the folds that attract the blowfly and cause maggot infestation.

Sounds like a beneficial practice. No?

[JennysCool]

The problem is it's called "mulesing" when it should be "sheepsing."

Now, "moosing" -- THAT'S a problem.

[LYSandra]

He/She is a dingbat! Always trashing America for being too greedy for $ and yet she has made a boatload here! We're too capitalistic blah blah blah! What a hypocrit!

[wmichgrad]

Navratilova joins campaign against "mulesing" of Australian sheep

Wed Jan 26, 6:57 PM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Tennis star Martina Navratilova has added her voice to a US campaign to end the Australian practice of "mulesing" -- cutting flesh and skin from the hindquarters of sheep to prevent infestations of maggots.

Navratilova, 48, sent a letter to Prime Minister John Howard in support of the campaign while she was in the country for the Australian Open (news - web sites) tennis tournament in Melbourne.

"I wish to address a very cruel and horrific practice currently executed in your country, called 'mulesing', in which slices of flesh are cut with a pair of shears from a lamb's hindquarters without any painkillers," Navratilova said in the letter seen Thursday.

"This is a deliberate act of violence. It is pain inflicted without just cause. Do you believe such cruelty should be allowed?

"Can you imagine what kind of person would be able to inflict such pain upon a defenseless creature? Harvesting livestock is one thing -- cruel and unusual infliction of pain in that process is another.

"It is ethically and morally wrong," she said in the letter dated Tuesday.

Navratilova called for Australia to pass laws banning mulesing.

The US-based pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is running a campaign against the practice in the United States, a major market for Australian wool.

It has called for an international boycott of Australian wool, influencing several leading firms to avoid using the wool in fear of bad publicity for their products.

The Australian wool industry has been enraged by the boycott and has been seeking through legal means to stop it.

It defends mulesing, which removes skin and flesh from areas most likely to attract infestations, as the most effective way to prevent flystrike in sheep, which farmers say could kill millions of animals.

[presidio9]

I did a Google search. It is a sheep farming process, where folds of skin are cut away to prevent "flystrike." Flys lay their eggs in the folds and the wool gets infested with maggots. The animal people feel that this is inhumane, because no anesthetic is typically used, and because when sheep are mulesed, it is impossible to identify which ones have excessive skin folds, so this trait continues to propagate.

[cyborg]

Here's a website describing the positives of mulesing...
http://www.woolisbest.com/animal_welfare/mulesing/index.html

[socal_parrot]

It involves cutting away flesh from a live animal.

I had something similar done as a young child. It was horrific.

[presidio9]

A moose once bit my sister.

[gathersnomoss]

Has Martina tried this proceedure. It may not be so bad.

[bigfootbob]

I neuter pigs & steers without drugs. There's a reason, drugs make it more dangerous for the animals.

[ClearCase_guy]

I was picturing electrical shocks applies to Mules in order to make them utter "singing" sounds for the amusement of an audience.

I'm serious.

[AmishDude]

Of course, if "anesthetic" is applied, a given proportion of the sheep will die, but who cares, ya know?

Martina might not understand this, but I suspect, in the little-travelled areas of Australia, worse things are done to sheep without their consent.

[seppel]

I think she's a lesbian?.