The Scottish SPCA has received a formal complaint following the release of undercover footage showing sheep kicked in the face and beaten by wool workers.
The eyewitness documented workers in Scotland striking sheep in the face with electric clippers, slamming their heads into the floor, beating them and throwing them off shearing trailers.
The video footage observed 24 sheep farms toured by shearers from a shearing contractor earlier this year.
On the footage, one of the sheep was suffering from mastitis and couldn’t stand up, and a worker explained that she was going to be shot.
Sheepshearers mostly work on commission, which usually means long hours. The average shearer, witnessed by the undercover farmhand, strips some 200 sheep of their wool each day.
WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE
— Radio Tay News (@RadioTayNews) October 17, 2018
Animal rights group @PETAAsia has released footage showing abuse alleged to have happened across 24 Scottish sheep farms. The charity says it has contacted the @ScottishSPCA to lodge a formal complaint pic.twitter.com/98U6H4R4ER
Following the release of similar footage filmed undercover at farms in England earlier this year, a statement issued by British Wool said it was “shocked and saddened”.
The organisation said: “We would like to point out that the vast majority of the thousands of shearers in the UK operate to the highest standards of animal welfare, which is an integral part of all our shearing courses.”
PETA Asia, who obtained the footage from the farmhand, has asked the animal welfare charity Scottish SPCA to launch an investigation.
