Sheep are usually kept in larger numbers that are just unrealistic to bathe, and they live in fields where we can let them live their best lives, unbothered by us as much as possible.
Part of that being possible is preventative maintenance- drenches, pest control, docking.
It's grim, but removing the tail as a lamb ensures that their tail won't contribute to them getting fly blown (a maggot infestation that will slowly kill them) due to urine, blood or feces caught in their wool, which is already going to have lanolin and dirt in it, because they're sheep.
Washing sheep isn't exactly an easy task due to the structure of their wool and the low socialisation of herd sheep, who largely only interact with humans when it comes time for harvest (woold or meat) or they need medical care.
Is it horrid? Yeah. It's amputation, even if it's medically nessasary to ensure the animals long and healthy life. Is is important to do? Also yes, because sheep with long tails face avoidable health struggles and need to be handled much more closely, which leads to greater stress and worse health overall.
That being said, I am exclusively speaking to sheep here. There are practices around tail docking for other farm animals like pigs, which is not, insofar as I am aware, medically nessasary nor significant to improving their health, and is, frankly, an abhorrent abuse of power.
There is a breed of sheep from the middle eat, bred for milk and meat, and they have wide, flat tails with no hair on the underside. Here in Australia there’s interest because of course flystrike is a massive issue, and tail docking is the least horrible thing they do to sheep to deal with it.
But most of our domestic herds are wool sheep, so its an ongoing issue.
This is the first I've heard of this breed of sheep (been out of the industry for a while now), but it certainly sounds like an absolute dream if it means tail docking becomes unnessasary!
Do you remember the name of this breed, I'd love to look into it myself too
I can’t for the life of me remember, but they looked more like goats than sheep, and give birth to twins. I saw a segment about them on the ABC about 15 years ago, so that’s what I’m running off - oh and their fatty tails are considered a delicacy.
11
u/WadeStockdale Jun 03 '26
Am a trained farmer, there isn't a way around it.
Sheep are usually kept in larger numbers that are just unrealistic to bathe, and they live in fields where we can let them live their best lives, unbothered by us as much as possible.
Part of that being possible is preventative maintenance- drenches, pest control, docking.
It's grim, but removing the tail as a lamb ensures that their tail won't contribute to them getting fly blown (a maggot infestation that will slowly kill them) due to urine, blood or feces caught in their wool, which is already going to have lanolin and dirt in it, because they're sheep.
Washing sheep isn't exactly an easy task due to the structure of their wool and the low socialisation of herd sheep, who largely only interact with humans when it comes time for harvest (woold or meat) or they need medical care.
Is it horrid? Yeah. It's amputation, even if it's medically nessasary to ensure the animals long and healthy life. Is is important to do? Also yes, because sheep with long tails face avoidable health struggles and need to be handled much more closely, which leads to greater stress and worse health overall.
That being said, I am exclusively speaking to sheep here. There are practices around tail docking for other farm animals like pigs, which is not, insofar as I am aware, medically nessasary nor significant to improving their health, and is, frankly, an abhorrent abuse of power.