Re: Record-breaking heat scorches southern Australia
My heart goes out to those in line with those fires. It must be a terrifying prospect. Australians are tough people thought, and they will get through this.
I was thinking about Aussie farmers this morning. The world judged them harshly when the pracice of mulesing was highlighted by the media. This impacted very negatively on Australian wool market overseas.
Mulesing is when the skin on both sides of the sheep's backside is stripped off!! Horrible, and dramatic to see. This was all the media showed. They did not show the 'why'. In the vast acreage of Australia, with large flocks of sheep and great distances, the farmers do not have much contact with their sheep as in other farming countries.
Flies are a constant problem in hot weather in Australia and New Zealand to a lessor degree. They lay their eggs on the sheep's backside area, the eggs hatch and the maggots start eating the sheep alive. It must be the most horrific death, slow and painful. I was reminded myself this morning as I was treating one of my lambs with flystrike. Mulesing is painful and quickly over, flystrike is slow and ghastly. The media attack by ignorant people was grossly unfair, and did not show the complete picture. Not much love and light in this post, but its truthful, and needed to be said. People need to search for the complete truth, not just media spin.
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