Now I have not done much research on this practice, or the reasoning behind it so I'm largely going to withhold commentary here, posting this to stir up some drama because it has all the things that make a good flame thread:Billboard targets mulesing
From correspondents in Los Angeles
December 23, 2004
AMERICAN animal rights activists have erected a large, gruesome billboard near one of the busiest thoroughfares in the US as the next step in their campaign to create a worldwide boycott of Australian wool.
The billboard holds nothing back and will be seen by almost 100,000 US motorists and pedestrians a day.
It is dominated by a photo of a sheep's mutilated, bleeding rear end after undergoing the controversial mulesing technique favoured by some Australian farmers.
Alongside the giant photo are the easily read words: "Did Your Sweater Cause a Bloody Butt? Boycott Australian Wool!"
"This is part of our advertising blitz," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaign co-ordinator Matt Rice said today.
The billboard is 4.5m high and 11m wide and sits on Manhattan's Ninth Ave, near the connection to New York's Lincoln Tunnel and Westside Highway.
It is also visible to commuters travelling to Manhattan's 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden arena and one of the America's busiest train stations, Penn Station.
Mr Rice said the New York billboard is the first of many that will be put up around the US and the rest of the world.
"The number of people that will see it each day is 90,800," Mr Rice said.
"It's pretty graphic because we want to show people exactly what's happening to these sheep.
"It's one thing to talk about it and it's another to actually show them the amount of skin that's removed and the amount of pain these sheep suffer and the billboard was the way to do that.
"The Australian merino wool industry has been carefully cultivating its image and no amount of fluffy propaganda can change the fact the wool industry is a violent and bloody industry that mutilates millions of lambs every single year without any pain relief whatsoever."
PETA is behind a high-profile campaign to stop Australian farmers using mulesing and to ban the live export of Australian sheep in what the group describes as cruel conditions.
Mulesing involves farmers cutting pieces of skin from a sheep's behind. The technique is used to prevent flystrike in the animals.
PETA's campaign, launched in October, has already had major success.
Large US fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, with 749 stores in the US and $US1.2 billion ($1.57 billion) in annual revenue, has agreed not to use Australian wool in its clothes after PETA threatened to launch a campaign against it.
Two other major retailers - America's J.Crew, an $US800 million ($1.05 billion) company, and New Look, a $US1 billion ($1.31 billion) UK company, have assured PETA they do not use Australian wool derived from the "cruel" mulesing technique.
One company refusing to cave in to PETA's demands is Italian fashion retailing giant Benetton.
Benetton has called PETA's campaign to force the company to drop Australian wool from its high-end jumpers, suits and other products as "unjustified and defamatory".
PETA responded by holding protests outside its stores in the US and Europe and said today it would continue to bring negative publicity to Benetton's continued use of Australian wool.
Australia is the largest producer and exporter of wool, accounting for 28 per cent worldwide.
AAP
a) PETA being their good natured, poorly executed selves
b) What appears to be a cruel farm practice that may or may not be healthier for the sheep in the long run (as I understand it, this is done to prevent the breeding of a type of fly that gets into the cracks left by "normal" shaving and lays thousands of eggs that end up eating the animal from the inside out)
c) Rich white folk defending their actions and being mad at PETA
And the question is:
Do the benifits of this practice outweigh the cons?
Also: Will award VV points to the tune of "whatever number it would take to let the reciever reach a number a multiple of 50VV's" for the first aussie/sheep/farmer/bloody ass joke that makes me laugh.
Discuss!
PETA! 
