This is not to clean the sheep it’s to get rid of parasites that can irritate the sheep and cause a lower quality of wool. Imagine it like shampoo for lice.
I've read something that might alleviate your concerns. Allegedly this frightens the sheep on the first go, maybe a couple times after that too, but they pick up on how they aren't itchy after the bath, and visibly try to get dunked when it's time for the next splash.
The issue with not completely submerging them is any parasites on their head can survive and re-infest the rest of the fleece. This is a little more humane but also a little less effective
Considering using an animal as a resource isnt necessary it is completely avoidable.
Like saying we have to keep elephants chained by the leg otherwise they would run off instead of carry tourists for hours. The alternative is to not use an animal as a commodity.
This seems like a much more humane application than others I’ve seen. There’s one where they lock a couple dozen in a cage that’s barely big enough for them to move with the top just barely above their heads, then they slowly drop the whole cage in to a pool of the liquid until they’re fully submerged, and then hold them there for like 60 seconds before slowly raising it back up.
It's definitely more like 5-10 seconds. But I get it, it does feel like a loooong time for an animal to be underwater. 60 seconds would definitely kill a panicked sheep or cow. It's called a plunge dip!
If they don’t, they will cough the inhaled water out when the cage goes back up. That’s they time it at 60 seconds, really hard to suffocate so quickly.
I have friends who fill super soakers with ivermectin and they just shoot their cows and horses. Mostly for fun, but apparently it works. I imagine it wouldn't work on a sheep though because of their wooly coat
That’s how my father in law used to dip his sheep, they were driven through a concrete pit and I remember helping him to dunk the sheep under to make sure they were fully covered. Sheep didn’t seem to mind it, I guess much better than being attacked by insects.
Its definitely not for 60 seconds lol, that would be a good way to drown your sheep, done right it should only be a few seconds that the water is over their heads, just long enough to saturate their wool.
No they really don't, but in the long run the little bit off stress is better than ending up with something like flystrike and literally getting eaten alive by maggots. There are some dipping machine that actually put the sheep into a cage that quickly gets fully submerged then raised back up so that they get the treatment over every inch of their body because their head gets dunked too.
Virtually 100% of sheep in the commercial wool industry are sent to slaughter when wool quality begins to decline at age 5-6 (lifespan is typically 10-20 years).
Wool farms typically keep the top 20-30% of female lambs for wool, and send the surplus 70-80% of lambs to slaughter. The vast majority of lamb meat comes from lambs who are between 6-12 months of age.
The male lambs who are not sent to slaughter are mostly castrated (with a 4% death rate from the procedure) and kept for wool, with a small amount being kept to breed with the females (they’re called rams). If the rams have poor wool quality, are temperamental, or show homosexual behavior, they are sent to slaughter.
Roughly 1.7 million sheep are killed every single day, with over 90% being 6-8 months old.
Mulesing: Common in Australia (which produces over half the world's merino wool), lambs have large folds of skin cut from their hindquarters—frequently without painkillers—to prevent flystrike (when flies lay eggs in the skin folds).
Physical Mutilations: Procedures such as tail docking and castration are routinely performed on young lambs with little to no pain relief.
Shearing Abuse: Animal rights investigations (such as those by PETA) have documented instances of fast-paced, piece-rate shearing leading to rough handling, cuts, and physical abuse of sheep in shearing sheds.
Slaughter and Aging: Once sheep pass their prime wool-producing years, many are transported long distances and sent to slaughterhouses for meat, sometimes without adequate stunning.
This is not a nice industry, it’s not a nice life for them. It is industrial, it is cruel. Don’t buy wool. Don’t eat meat. If you love sheep, please go vegan 🌱🐑💚
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u/Technical-Prize-4840 5h ago
It might just be the color of wet wool, but they look whiter/cleaner going in than they do coming out to me.