Singer Pink Has Angered Australian Farmers
Category: Celebrity News, Gossip, Lifestyle, Personality, Relationship
With a new video produced for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the British pop sensation Pink has angered Australian farmers and officials. Pink is urging shoppers to boycott Australia’s wool because of a farming practice called “mulesing“, which involves cutting strips of skin off the area around a sheep’s tail without the use of anesthetic. The process is meant to prevent myiasis, or “fly-strike,” in which fly larvae infest and feed on the skin, by creating scar tissue. Though proponents of mulesing say it helps prevent death caused by the infestation, animal rights activists say it is cruel and there are humane alternatives. Mulesing is already illegal in the UK, and even in Australia is being phased out by 2010.
“I am calling on consumers to check labels on sweaters before buying them, and if they’re merino wool or made in Australia, to leave them on the racks,” the singer from Doylestown said in a news conference in Paris. She said the wool trade’s methods were “so sadistic that it makes you consider clearing your closet.” PETA has released a video narrated by Pink with gruesome footage of workers cutting folds of skin on the rears of struggling sheep.
But Robert Pietsch, president of Australia’s Wool Producers and chairman of the Wool and Sheep Industry Taskforce said,
“Mulesing is the best practice at the moment to protect sheep against the horrible condition of blowfly strike.” Pietsch also stated that the industry is working to phase out mulesing by 2010 and has been conducting extensive trials on other ways to prevent fly strike. Treasurer Peter Costello has slammed Pink, claiming that she “knew nothing about mulesing, let alone Australian farmers.” Costello continued, “You know, Pink is entitled to her views but, at the end of the day, would Australia’s farmers take advice from Pink? The Australian Treasurer went on to say, “Sheep are at risk of being fly-blown and dying… it’s not a pretty sight. Mulesing is not a pretty sight either but it’s a damn sight more humane than letting a sheep die fly-blown in a paddock.”
PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said, “PETA is thrilled that Pink is leading our global boycott of Australian wool until the industry’s bizarre, cruel lamb mutilations stop. Pink has attracted more attention to the problem of mulesing in the past 24 hours than the issue has received in the past 24 years.”
This is not the first time that Pink has flown the flag for Peta. She’s previously written to Prince William to chide him for fox-hunting. She also claims to have turned down an invitation to sing at the prince’s birthday party because of his participation in other blood sports.
Other Peta supporters include actors Pamela Anderson and Sadie Frost, singer Moby and music mogul and X Factor star Simon Cowell. Australian actress Toni Collette and Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde have previously campaigned with Peta to end mulesing.
Tags: Pink
