Australia is the last major wool-exporter to have wool-growers mules their flocks, after the practice was banned in New Zealand last week on animal cruelty grounds.
Almost 95% of wool-growers continue to remove skin around the tails and breeches of merino lambs to prevent maggot infestation and blowfly strike, which they say is more humane after the introduction of anaesthetic.
One Tasmanian wool-grower, Bernard Brain, says he has never mulesed his lambs, and that his wool sells at a higher premium due to increased consumer demand for ethical fibres.