 Sheep are often viewed as less intelligent than other animals, but the research shows otherwise. Sheep are extremely complex animals when it comes to both intelligence and emotion. Studies show that sheep perform on par with primates at several high-level cognitive tasks. For example, they have considerable capacity to distinguish and identify faces of other sheep as well as humans. Sheep are highly social animals with distinct personalities. They show strong mother-offspring bonds and relationships within their herd. There are currently over a billion sheep being mass exploited for their flesh, milk and wool. Today we're going to focus on the wool industry, as there are many misconceptions about the cruelties involved. Many people believe that the wool industry is justifiable and humane. This stems from the fact that the type of sheep that are predominantly exploited need to be groomed. So why not give these sheep their much-needed haircut and sell the wool in the process? Sounds like a win-win situation, right? Well, the truth is a lot more sinister than that. Naturally, wild sheep wouldn't need to be shorn at all, as they would shed, like many other mammals. The current sheep that we use for wool originated in Spain in the 12th century. The merino was imported to Australia where they were genetically manipulated through selective breeding. Merino sheep do not lose their hair, it just keeps growing. The wool industry produces around 1,160 million kilograms of clean wool per year from a global herd of over a billion sheep. Many of the merino breeds are dual-purpose, used for their flesh and sometimes their milk too. So essentially, the wool and meat industries are intrinsically linked. Some of the largest producers of wool are Australia, which is also the largest exporter of wool, China, which is also the largest importer, United States and New Zealand. As with all mass exploitation and commodification of animals for products comes egregious welfare and rights violations. There are many to mention, but today we'll cover some of the most shocking. Two of the most disturbing are towel docking and mulesing. One method to dock towels involves leaving a rubber band on until the towel falls off. In the Australian guidelines, the hot knife method is generally preferable for towel docking done with mulesing. This involves slicing the tail off with a heated scarring iron. Mulesing is the slicing of two patches of skin on each side of the anus right down to the back of the knee of the lamb so that a scar of stretched skin grows back. Tail docking and mulesing are shown to increase the chance of rectal prolapse, tumours and vulva cancer in sheep. The industry claims these practices are necessary to prevent fly strike. A painful, sometimes fatal condition caused by flyers laying eggs on another animal, which hatch into maggots and eat their host's flesh. At most animal sanctuaries, the staff will never dock towels or mules to prevent fly strike. Instead, they keep the sheep's bottom clean, give daily checks, offer shelter from the heat or cold and use fly strike prevention treatments. On sanctuaries, the ratio of carers to sheep is much higher, so care and attention is maximised. Conversely, because of the large size of flocks on lamb and wall farms, it is near impossible to give proper attention to each of the animals, so tail docking and mulesing are a way of cutting corners. Although mulesing isn't practised on all wall farms around the world, it is still widely practised in Australia, which is the world's leading wall producer and exporter, accounting for the majority of the world's apparel wall. Around 90% of the 68 million flock are still mulesed in Australia every year. Some wall producers have stopped this practice, opting instead to go as far as breeding smooth skin lambs, which is claimed to mitigate instances of fly strike. But this still doesn't address the other ethical implications associated with mass exploiting sheep for wool and flesh. Some of the other cruel standard practices are castration, which involves either putting a rubber band over the scrotum until blood flow is constricted, eventually causing the testicles to drop off, or slicing their scrotums open, pulling their testes out and cutting them off, horn trimming by either disbutting by a hot iron, or applying a caustic paste to prevent growth, or by dehorning, which is the removal of horns from a sheep's skull using anything from knives, wires, saws or shears. The wool industry is notorious for rough handling of sheep, as shears are paid by the number of sheep shorn, not by the hour. Thus, speed is prioritized over precision. Many investigations have exposed the gruesome results of fast shearing. Sheep can suffer cuts, grazes and gashes. Merino sheep are often cut more easily since they have wrinkly folded skin. Sheep are also prey animals. So to be held down and rough handled like this causes them extreme fear and distress. The vast majority of spent wool sheep are murdered for their flesh generally at around five to six years old. Their natural lifespan is 12 years, but living as long as 20 years is not uncommon. Mutton, which is mature sheep flesh, is not a hugely popular meat in Australia, so many of these sheep are sold into the live export trade. In 2019, 1.1 million sheep were exported from Australia. Some vessels can carry up to 85,000 sheep. Depending on the destination, route taken and vessel, an average voyage to the Middle East from Australia can take anywhere from three to five weeks. The death rate permitted for sheep on these ships is 1%, so any deaths that happen under that 1% don't need to be reported. This means thousands of animals can die at sea every year without the public being made aware. These ships are overcrowded and animals are confined in close quarters in their own waste. Temperatures can soar to extreme levels, so sheep dying of heat exhaustion is very common. It is important to state that no matter whether these exploited wool sheep are shipped away on boats or stay in their country of origin, their fate is much the same. They will all be sliced across the throat, their bodies will be cut up into pieces and sold for consumption. So as you can see, something as quaint and innocent looking as a woolen sweater, beanie or scarf actually has a very sinister and violent story behind it. There are many other animals exploited for wool. Some other kinds of wool to avoid include cashmere from goats, mohair from angora goats and our pack of wool. Some vegan alternatives to wool are cotton, eco polyester fleece, bamboo fleece, hemp or linen. So please leave animals out of your lifestyle, whether it be for food, entertainment, testing or clothing. Let's create the world we want to see for all animals and choose vegan.