Date Posted: 10 Aug 2005
Industry Says No to Woolly Deal
THE Australian wool industry is poised to reject a deal on animal welfare brokered between a woolgrowers group and a US-based animal liberation body.
An agreement between People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Australian Wool Growers Association was announced yesterday.
It includes a plan to gradually phase out mulesing -- a controversial process to rid sheep of flystrike by stripping skin from the animals' rear ends -- of merino sheep in Australia by 2010, and seeks an end to the live export trade to the Middle East if animals are not slaughtered the same way as in Australia.
Wool industry leaders have treated the agreement with scepticism but AWGA chairman Chick Olsson declared it a significant breakthrough for woolgrowers.
PETA has agreed to halt for 45 days its controversial and highly successful global campaign of bloody images against the Australian wool industry to give Australia's other wool groups time to analyse the deal.
If the deal is supported, PETA has promised to implement a 10-year moratorium on its campaign against the wool industry.
"This is definitely progress for everyone involved," PETA campaign official Matt Rice said.
The key could be acceptance of the deal by the most vocal PETA opponent, research and development body Australian Wool Innovation, a group chaired by former defence minister Ian McLachlan.
AWI, which is suing PETA in the Federal Court, was not involved in the PETA-AWGA talks.
"We hope the AWI as well as the rest of the industry will follow AWGA's lead," Mr Rice said.
But South Australian Farmers Federation livestock executive committee chairman Ben Mumford said the deal involved a minor grower group and was irrelevant.
"This is just a strategy to divide us and we've got to make sure this doesn't happen," he said. "This group should be ashamed of the deal it has signed."
WoolProducers president Robert Pietsch said the agreement signalled a backdown by PETA.
PETA has had significant success in its 12-month campaign against the Australian industry.
Large US fashion retailers Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland, American Eagle and Limited Brands, and UK retailers New Look and George, have announced they will not use Australian wool after pressure from PETA.
Mr Mumford said the Australian industry supported action being taken by the National Sheep and Wool Industry Taskforce in its campaign against animal rights groups. The taskforce, made up of eight major producer groups, is expected to comment in the next few days.
Source: Herald Sun
