PETA: WHAT THE F*#@ IS THIS ABOUT SWEARING AT SHEEP?

PETA Releases Redacted Complaint With Witness Accounts of Physical Abuse at Boorungie Sheep Station

For Immediate Release:
25 May 2015

Sydney – With stories regarding PETA US’ complaint against Boorungie Station suggesting that it was merely about swearing at sheep, PETA has released the redacted complaint made to RSPCA NSW, which detailed instances in which shearers working at Boorungie Station punched sheep in the face, punched a lamb in the torso, stamped and stood on sheep’s heads and necks, struck them with a pipe and electric clippers until they bled, picked up one sheep by the hind legs and threw her head first through a gate and crudely stitched up gaping wounds without any pain relief.

Witness reports filed with the authorities included the following:

[W]itness 2 saw this [X] worker … punch a sheep in the head, bouncing his or her skull off the hard wooden floor at the [X] shearing shed. Witness 2 then saw [X] hold the sheep’s head in his left hand as he punched the animal in the head, three more times, bloodying his knuckles and the sheep’s head. Witness 2 heard [X] repeatedly yell, “F**k” and then saw [X] stomp on the sheep’s head, twice, audibly bouncing the animal’s head off the hard wooden floor. After again yelling, “F**k,” [X] punched the sheep in the head a fifth time – again bouncing the animal’s head off the floor – and kicked the sheep in the torso. Witness 2 saw that the sheep bled from the head following the sustained beating and that the blood pooled on the floor.

“If foul language were the worst that sheep in Australian shearing sheds had to endure, then no complaint would have been filed”, says PETA Australia Director of Campaigns Jason Baker. “This is simply another example of the industry trying to distract from the very real issue of sheep being abused by shearers.”

A copy of the redacted complaint is available on request. To see footage from the investigation into Australian shearing sheds, please visit PETA.org.au.

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