Unfortunately this predisposes the animal to fly-strike, and mulesing is the Australian sheep industries way of preventing it. Now, while I find the practice sickening as any abuse of animals, when I read sites such as PETA's and find statements like "The market for alpaca exploded in the 1980s, when South American alpacas and llamas were marketed worldwide to entrepreneurs who bought into the vision of a ground-floor investment in a luxury fiber market. The craze subsided but breeding continues, and unwanted animals are now routinely put up for auction. Llama sanctuaries and rescue operations have sprung up in the wake of the breeding craze to handle the growing number of abused, neglected animals." I wonder how much of their argument is exaggerated, in the end, it will not help their cause to give their opponents any amunition for counter attack. Which is just what the Australian wool industry is doing. Unfortunately their efforts to justify the practice of mulesing are pretty pathetic, they belive it's better than the animal suffering from fly-strike! They even report that the "new method of clipping" will avoid mulesing, so instead of skin being cut away, they will put clips on the skin which will restrict the blood supply, the flesh will die and drop off - end of problem!!
Hand spinners probably only account for a very small percentage of end use of merino wool, it's the major manufacturers that need to join the demand for welfare friendly fleece. But although in the past I have bought merino rovings from UK vendors who probably are unaware of the welfare issues, until such a time when that is possible, I won't be buying any more merino roving.
