if there are no folds of skin on the sheep's backside the flies won't be able to lay their eggs there. is a topical anesthetic reduces the pain in the affected area for 24 hours and also helps the wounds to heal based on this research some sheep farmers have now decided to start using anesthetics join the mules in procedure. animal rights activists demand that mules and be banned outright but the veterinarians here say that's not a viable alternative at this point. after one year of your using what we had was for you to try. and let you go fishing and. experts estimate the without meals in $2000000.00 sheep would die each year of maggot infestation farmers are trying to get rid of the skin folds through selective breeding. they will have. less recall

especially. in the beverage area hopefully. hopefully what they can remove how many years do you down to tell you take another because. you see you already store plenty of recall. selective breeding does seem to offer a long term solution to the problem of excessive skin folds. now we're on our way to talk to a man who's been documenting the abuse of sheep on farms for decades. when not going to use his full name but peter has worked on several sheep farms and has some horrific stories to tell. these photographs show shake that have become injured or seriously ill but have not yet been put out of their misery for economic reasons. or managers craving animals a lot just because they are going to modify. we're going to get another layer and

unfortunately on these farms which you have the bad welfare that's the mentality. how often does this happen. you know everywhere but it's not where characters which is compromise are on a lot more properties and watch. the industry at large to have your boy. right now and no one's going to admit to that peta says he's also seen this sort of abuse on farms that have been checked by animal welfare inspectors. the property owners know they're coming in they're coming. and they're bringing in the trunk you dorrie everything looks good on the dock and i get shot and i get sharon just where the property owner wouldn't want to show them that i actually don't get free rides and so it's really a case of you know who checks the check and. if regular inspections don't help to promote animal welfare perhaps the answer lies in better cooperation between sheep

farmers and clothing manufacturers we travel to a farm on the australian island of tasmania. there are a leaven 1000 merinos here sheep breeder david taylor stopped using news in 4 years ago. one of taylor's best customers is here to observe the shearing process. stefan krauss is the product manager for a german outerwear company krauser is satisfied that tayla sheep are being raised humanely. he will sing good but unfortunately a lot of farmers still use mules in without anesthetics it's horrible we simply couldn't imagine having our products associated with such a procedure it's always been in the catalogue of course tayla sheep still face the threat of maggot infestation untreated the maggots would borrow under the sheets skin which is also painful. and deadly but tyler has come up with

a process to prevent this he treats the lambs with pesticides it's expensive and time consuming but it works tyler says that the chemicals have no side effects and cannot be detected in the lambs wool also he she is all of the sheep several times a year in the affected area these new concepts of not yet caught on with other famines in fact they've criticized his innovative approach. think what if you're an idiot people are going doing this for 200 years and i've been used to doing something you know are generations of being doing something such not for someone to come in and saw you know this why it's a bit of a big pill to swallow. taylor shares his sheep just like other farmers do it takes 2 to 3 minutes for each one he says it's important to cause the animal's official stress as possible. now i have all the say put your leg the microscope the fate of all of a culpable there right away happily. there within. this year is can

process $150.00 shape day each animal guild's an average of 6 kilos of whom. the material is then sorted by quality and pressed into by about half the wool is sent to clients in germany the rest is sold at auction. but mules in free farms like tieless are the exception in australia that's a problem for clothing manufacturers that want to make sure that the wool by use is produced humanely. because it in how do things look right now but i think our company needs a lot more mules in free wool so we're trying to convince other farmers to use the methods that david taylor does so if some rational economists. some musing free wool is sold at auction. we've come to the

a strange exchange in sydney to find out more. the total of 320000000 kilograms of roll produced every year in australia the yield is worth the equivalent of about $2300000000.00 euros. andrew blanch is managing director of a large group production company and says merino wool is a key product for his clients. to a very big part of the australian economy and continues to be in the last few years has been a fantastic return for the struggle. but not all who is the same and only experts like andrew blanch can spot the differences it all comes down to the crimping or the frequency of the waves in the wool you can even tell whether the sheep that produce this material have a lot of skin wrinkles. the shape that they come from might be a bit small and could have

a little bit more wrinkle at the front of the of the animal and the shape that. comes from could be shaped a little bit larger and much worse much plainer he says that the wall of mules in 3 sheep is not as fluffy and seems almost artificial. this one. feels more slippery it feels closer to synthetic i guess but it's it's how this one likes you feel just the way that it especially stands up and looks at you with your push against in the pushback it's almost like it's talking to you. the prices the merino will depend mostly on the daily demand on average the bias paid the equivalent of 15 euros per kilo. in free will costs about one year i pick . the irish fish the. new strategy and wool growers association set a target date of 2010 for ending the practice. but that hasn't happened yet we're

here to talk to walter merry men who was the association chairman until last year we wanted to find out what he thinks of the increasing demand from using free will due to concerns about animal welfare. brains and what i mean i can go. surely there's a huge parallel industry doesn't want. you mean by the industry the bias from germany for example like they don't find out now any specific in germany they want to a meal because they start to say there isn't any. to 2 failures in 100 change akira finish what growers look at and until the time when the. best way for them to look after a shape is where the show is you go chelation with thyroid. but that procedure is

still an exception among sheep farmers merryman says that mules in free will is available if clients are willing to. pay for it they'll get some more of that. but it's not mall wall. so it's nothing about money in the end isn't it. so. it's not yet clear what the associations policy on meals in will be under its new chairman. we wanted to interview some government officials about animal welfare problems in the wool industry but they declined our request so we talked to a member of the new south wales parliament. we have an animal that can adapt to the australian environment. so it requires all

these interventions by humans and some of those interventions are highly controversial some of them. very serious invasive treatments or procedures and they're often done without pain relief and if we do to a cat or dog in australia you would be prosecuted and possibly put in. mark pearson proposed legislation to end the practice of me. when i 1st brought the motion. in court to call on the house to commend the progressive growers and to move away from using and in the meantime provide absolute objection the next morning when the motion comes on for debate or consideration the government's object. 11 percent of australians is exported to europe. about 75 percent is sent to china for processing some of that ends up in direct to fabric clothing.

we've come to shanghai to visit a wall processing plant that's by a french company. is here to make sure that the museum free will that his company demand is not mixed together with inferior products. we want to inspect this facility for ourselves so. this equipment is processing 20 tons of day. for us to make sure that the well from our pharmacy stay separate from the rest of the material. in the. first barrios of are all wool that share common properties including 5 the length crimping and fineness combined into production units that way several tons each every unit is given a number then is washed and dried several times. production

manager chris mckenzie keeps a close eye on the documentation so that the different varieties of wool stay separate. we get a lot of what the 40 yeah i got a lot of. likes if you think you know. the difference. between meals not much incentive to lower their prices but that principle. this was. the rule that's been washed and dried it is then processed into finished gian the batched number stays the same throughout the system which includes several different production sites and often different companies in various countries. few businesses take the time and expense to keep such a close watch on the production process. and that's really

a good start off that adds to the cost of our products and we put a lot of effort into doing these kinds of checks because we hold ourselves to a higher standard that makes our products more expensive markers for the business i'm tired of. we've come to berlin for the fashion week shows that are held here twice a year. we are some of the exhibitors if they know where the used in their products comes from. the compass us tighe and. ours is produced in australia. they pay a lot of attention to sustainability there and they make an effort to see that the sheep are treated humanely tart not bad habits are very pleased about that because our customers are concerned about animal welfare see if i was a couldn't promise i'll come. back but i don't know anything about conditions at specific farms in new zealand or australia so. do your suppliers know. whether the

sheep have been subjected to musing for example wasn't a childhood and just as a family owned company we need to trust the people we work with on sunday and. many of the exhibitors rely on their manufacturers to tell them where the water comes from. it's possible they might buy another batch of will somewhere else but if they do they tell me like this comes from patagonia kind of product the shooter can sit it to c.n.n.'s candy for to check on all of our distributors and comment on since bush fish but we're constantly in contact with them to make sure that the well comes from sheep that are raised humanely just as i once now take advantage of. germany's minister for economic co-operation and development good miller is committed to sustainable clothing production miller is opposed to musing but says more research is needed on this problem his ministry has developed a new seal of approval for companies that produce socially and ecologically

sustainable textiles. much better than of these standards also apply to animal welfare and can and has. been for its meat though c.v.s. is the seal is associated with a large number of basic standards which of course also cover animal welfare as far as all is concerned. i would as was but this is a very complex situation. that has said the sea will also deal with animal welfare standards met and because. my staff will explain the details. the spokesperson says that the minister will provide a statement later today. you might think that good mullo would welcome the opportunity to discuss a project that's very important to him and. we try to talk to him again later but he declined our request for an interview.

so we went back to the consumer initiative office. spirit is this new seal apply to animal welfare not mine i'm vison but it's based on what i've learned so 5 plays only a small role if any too small the certification program needs to address the issue of animal welfare people who are concerned about this need to make their voices heard and if the minister takes those concerns into account he'll be on the right track and done. but how can consumers make sure that they're buying sustainable products you must therefore watch every purchase makes a statement people need to pay more attention to the sources of the textile products that they buy that way we can effect change. but how much influence to consumers really have how will they react when they find out more about how merino wool is produced.

the young women we met earlier was shocked when we showed them videos that we put together for this report. i didn't know that it was this bad the company's always put a positive spin on it and they tell you that was a wonderful material but when you see something like this you think twice before you buy well again. chemical fortunately i think i'd pay more for that was produced in humane conditions. don't suffer if you shop and get it. out of. the big chain store should do something about this they have the financial clout to make sure that well is produced humanely. but a lot of clothing manufacturers don't pay a lot of attention to animal welfare and many retailers don't ask enough questions

about.