Why aren't all wool sales internet based?

It is obvious that the vested interests are making good money from growers by keeping the 1800s-based auction system in place.

What a sad reflection it is on the cruel Australian animal farmer that only the loss of dollars will cause him/her to treat other sentient beings with respect and free them from pain and suffering.

Roberts Wool Auction in Launceston during February had wool declared from non-mulsed in their catalogue and lots were labelled. Roberts Wool have been actively promoting unmulsed wool. There are a lot of producers out there who don't and have never mulsed but we have never been recognised for our extra effort to look after our sheep.

The reason all wool sales are not internet based is that the average lot size in Australia is about four bales. To sell it online would take five times as long. Elders global system is ok for small irregular sales but to sell the entire clip under current lotting/classing methods would not be possible.

Why isn't all the wool sold in one centre with maximum competition selling four days a week? That is the more realistic scenario that would immediately benefit the industry. Competition and rationalistion is the name of the game in any commodity. Mulesing, poor marketing, archaic systems, lack of foresight for a beautiful fibre that makes up less than 3pc of the textile market - all a result of an industry that runs on an attitude of denial and apathy.

Sportscraft is an excellent brand of clothing. I asked their sales lady in my local David Jones store whether they would be using wool from non-mulesed sheep. She said she didn't know much about it but on being pressed she was quite aware of the issue. She undertook to inquire at "head office" and gave me the phone number of Sportscraft's customer service. I called. They undertook to get back to me. To date no response. My question - how come overseas stores are reacting speedily to customer demand, while in Australia there has been NO reaction from local retailers. I won't buy cruelty. Please do something within Australia. It would send a very clear message within this country and overseas.

It would appear that O.Parkes and Slamina Evas's comments this morning have completely misinterpreted the meaning of the word 'CRUELTY'. A number of these so called alternatives to 'CRUEL' mulesing practice have not been truly fully tested at a commercial level, simply due to the low incidence of fly strike resultant from below average rainfalls in much of the national sheep breeding areas. Also many of the so called alternatives may be WORKING as the proponents have a vested commercial interest in having them WORK? The only effective long term chemical fly-strike controls available (If you press the manufacturers and DPI) are not recommended to be applied if that person is pregnant, therefore not good for user. Yet OK if ewe is pregnant? If you want to see the true meaning of the word ‘CRUEL’ you watch a mature ewe that was un-mulesed as a lamb, develop fly strike on its breech due to after birth from twins and then suffer immense pain as this slowly spreads on up to its back and it dies a truly CRUEL and painful death from the resultant blood poisoning. There is little likelihood of survival for the now orphan twin lambs as they will no longer have their mother's milk nor protection and become easy picking for natural predators, especially birds of prey. Watch their slow death as first the wedge tail eagle take both lambs eyes to render them helpless then may choose to leave them wander around now blind to perish a little if they put up too much of a fight. Now that is what I call CRUEL,

PETAR - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals with REALITY.

The practical question that bears on this issue at the moment is whether or not there was ( after taking into account the question of fleece quality) any marked difference in price paid for mulesed and non-mulesed product?

What I call cruel "Petar" is the introduction of an animal that is unsuited to this climate and is continually inbred bred for its wool to satisfy human greed at the expense of the animal's well being. And now you have a superfine wool where the animal is caged much like the appalling conditions that pigs and chickens are subjected to. The continued cruel exploitation of sentient beings that cannot fight back is a shameful moral disgrace, to put it mildly!

Industry has undertaken to cease mulesing by the end of Dec 2010. Wool from non-mulesed sheep is therefore the acknowledged future of the Australian wool industry and premiums for wool from non-mulesed sheep should not be an issue in future.

Every industry looks to the future and adapts its practices - anticipated to be for the better - accordingly. The wool industry surely is no different.

Some producers have adapted already, or are doing so, without fanfare.

Not to mules animals does not mean abandoning them to fly-strike but rather planned management and genetic selection as a way to achieve this.

for slamina. There is none as blind as those who will not see. You just can't talk to peta.