Designers rave about its quality is. 60 not because its very breathable so you stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter its all muslims have. Merino wool is also a practical fabric. And shit when you sweat it dries fast and it doesnt smell and you dont have to wash it often its natural and renewable resource for. Most of the merino wool used for clothing sold in europe comes from a stray there are about 70000000 merino sheep there and theyre bred to produce as much will as possible. To. Get an animal that can be deputy straight environment so it requires all these interventions for humans one of these procedures called musing involves removing parasite prone skin phones from lambs critics im using is painful for the shape and completely. Unnecessary. Merino wool is popular with european consumers its used to make sweaters coats Outdoor Clothing and even shoes. Its for to get feels great functional underwear made of merino wool is excellent for turns out of the shop yesterday and what about the sheep whats important for you and i know what its of thats not up does about when. They should be raised and sure humanely its off the shorn border for instance where does merino wool come from. Somewhere in the mountains i think. That i dont know exactly of all the no basis and i think. Many Wood Products dont list their source merino sheep are also raised in germany nearly half a 1000000 of them. Weve come to a sheep farm in southern germany to talk to some experts about merinos birds so there heidi animals and easy to raise. But they dont have much in common with their ancestors which will likely imported from north africa to spain in the middle ages. The original arena has had extremely fine wool. But over the centuries theyve been bred to develop more skin folds and that produces more. Of the. Most german merinos a bridge for meat production their skin has no wrinkles and their wool is course. But once. We get a lot of rain here and there was perfectly suited to those conditions and. The. Course wall helps to keep out the moisture out in front of like a raincoat exactly. Is used to make carpets insulating materials and even see how has the public transport vehicles the wool thats used in the manufacture of clothing comes from other countries argentina produces about 4 percent of the world by total so do south africa and new zealand at 88 percent a stranger is by far the largest producer. Merino wool is a major a strange an export turnover in 2018 was equivalent to over 2300000000 euros. A merino even appears on a stray unicorns but the dark side of the story is that the sheep bred to produce excessive amounts of wool and there are serious concerns about the way theyre raised. The full Course Foundation for Animal Welfare has been investigating those conditions. As Consumers Want wool clothing thats fluffy soft and cuddly whats the reality behind all production this is stuff they had 88 there are real problems with Animal Welfare and australian sheep foreign nation. Door to door activists are particularly concerned about a process called meals ing which is designed to protect sheep from fly maggots and these hidden camera videos you can see how strips of skin are removed from the buttocks without the use of anesthetics. As one of the ever fashion you can just imagine how much that hurts or perhaps when he is intense 30 years and it lasts for several days. More than 90 percent of all will comes from a shape that was subjected to this procedure. Disaster does you wont find a lot of musing free sweaters in the shops. How can consumers find out whether the sheep have been raised humanely. We went online posed as a buyer and asked german clothing manufacturers in stores were they offered news in free products. We contacted 34. 00 companies and got a variety of responses. To dont buy a stray in wall 6 intend to use mules in free will in the future 10 trust their suppliers who say they dont use mules ing. 7 try to convince customers that the animals are well treated 5 didnt answer our question for didnt answer at all and no one talked about supply chain transparency. Our test indicates that its tough for german consumers to get straight answers to these questions some of the companies gave us a general response or tried to change the subject to different topics. Later one company said that it had mistakenly sent us a reply intent. For a different question. Perhaps official Quality Assurance can help the Consumer Initiative is an ngo that promotes Sustainable Production and consumption with backing from the German Government we asked whether the seals used by the Wool Industry provide proof that the sheep are being treated humanely. We have the wool mark seal there are 3 main categories but they dont address the issue of Animal Welfare at the 4th. The blue angel is a very well known eco label but it also doesnt deal with Animal Welfare aspect of. Confidence in textiles label focuses on ecological standards of. The global organic textile standard certification has a very good reputation it indicates that producers have met very high social ecological and Animal Welfare standards in the production chain so you wont find it on products very often. But how can consumers inform themselves effectively about these products if its funny and. They cannot check these labels which provide a lot of information but the companies should do more to take into account the concerns that german consumers have about Animal Welfare of all. If you go in other words most of these labels provide no information about whether the animals are treated humanely so consumers are still largely in the dark. Ready now were on our way to a stray where much of the worlds wool is produced we want to find out more about that surgical procedure called him using. The state of New South Wales is home to about 27000000 merino sheep. Theyve even been immortalized in statues. Veterinarians at this farm owned by the university of sydney have been studying the effects of meals and. Was i there trying to come up with ways to reduce crime during the procedure. Because she has recall she came here very close to the i knew she was over you can relate in some cases to what we have mistakes and you know. I try and make a baby real soon with this the best shelf life for. The fly strike is the killer option didnt. Leave if there are no folds of skin on the sheeps back side the flies wont be able to lay their eggs there. Topical anesthetic reduces the pain in the affected area for 24 hours and also helps the wounds to heal based on this research some sheep farmers have now decided to start using anesthetics join them using procedure. And. Animal rights activists demand that mules and be banned outright but the veterinarians here say thats not an viable alternative at this point was placed after one year of your using what we had was for you to think that. Unless you go fishing. Experts estimate the without meals in 2000000. 00 she would die each year of maggot infestation farmers are trying to get rid of the skin falls through selective breeding. They will have a body less recall especially around the bridge area the bare breech area hopefully and i feel like they removed. How many years do you. Take him of the decay. You see you already still plenty of people. Selective breeding does seem to offer a long Term Solution to the problem of excessive skin folds. Now were on our way to talk to a man whos been documenting the abuse of sheep on farms for decades. Were not going to use his full name but peter has worked on several sheep farms and has some her briefing stories to tell. These photographs show she that have become injured all seriously ill but have not yet been put out of their misery for economic reasons. The manager is keeping animals alive just because they think theyre going to get another face of the going to another land and unfortunately on these farms which have the bad welfare thats just the mentality. How often does this happen. Its absolutely not everywhere but its not really a crisis not rich is compromising on a lot more properties and what. The industry like to have youre below. That now and no ones going to admit to that peter says hes also seen this sort of abuse on farms that have been checked by Animal Welfare inspectors. The Property Owners know theyre coming in there. And everything looks hunky dory everything looks good on the dock and i get sharon like that sharon just where the Property Owner would want to show them that thats free right and so its really a case of you know who checks the checker. If regular inspections dont help to promote Animal Welfare perhaps the answer lies in better cooperation between she found and clothing manufacturers we travel to will follow on the astray you know and of tasmania. There are levon 1000 merinos here she traded david taylor stopped using news in 4 years ago. One of the childs best customers is here to observe the shearing process. Stefan krauss is the product manager for a german Outerwear Company krauser is satisfied that tayla sheep are being raised humanely. But unfortunately a lot of farmers still use mules in without anesthetics its horrible we simply couldnt imagine having our products associated with such a procedure. In the catalogue of course titles shed still face the threat of maggot infestation untreated the maggots would borrow under the sheep skin which is also painful and deadly but tyler has come up with a process to prevent this he treats the labs with pesticides its expensive and time consuming but it works tyler says that the chemicals have no side effects and cannot be detected in the lambs wool also he she has all of the shakes several times a year in the affected area these new concepts have not yet caught on with other farmers in fact theyve criticized his innovative approach. Think what if youre an idiot. Brain doing this for to argue and ive been used to doing something you know are generations of being doing something so its not for someone to come in and so you cant all this why its a bit of a big pill to swallow. Tireless she has his sheep just like other farmers do it takes 2 to 3 minutes for each one he says its important to cause the animals as little stress as possible. Now you have a how the sacred your legs the microbes help to pull all of the faith. Right away happily. Until the finish. This year is comprised 150. 00 shape day each animal guilds an average of 6 kilos of whom. The material is then sorted by quality and pressed into bales about half the wool is sent to clients in germany the rest is sold at auction. But meals in free farms like tieless are the exception in australia thats a problem for clothing manufacturers that want to make sure that the wool they use is produced humanely. Visiting how do things look right now the. Company needs a lot more mules in free will so were trying to convince other farmers to use the methods that david taylor does in itself they suresh legalities. Some mules in free wool is sold at auction. Weve come to the Australian Wool exchange in sydney to find out more. The total of 320000000 kilograms of roll wool are produced every year in australia the yield is worth the equivalent of about 2300000000. 00 euros. Andrew blanch is managing director of a large Group Production company and says merino wool is a key product for his clients. To a very big part of the australian economy and continues to last for years has been a fantastic return for the strata. But not all who is the same and only experts like Andrew Blanch can spot the differences it all comes down to the crimping or the frequency of the waves in the wool you can even tell whether the sheep that produce this material have a lot of skin wrinkles. The shape that they come from might be a bit small and could have a little bit more wrinkle at the front of the animal and the shape that the ball the quote comes from could be shaped a little bit larger much plainer he says that the wall of milk. In freesheet its not as fluffy and seems almost artificial. This one. Feels more slippery it feels. Synthetic i guess but its its how this one likes you feel just the way that it stands up and looks at you with your push against him to push back out your words so its almost like hes talking to you. The prices for marina will depend mostly on the daily demand on average the bias paid the equivalent of 15 euros per kilo. For you would cost about one year i pay. For it. To you straight in Wool Growers Association set a target of 2010 for ending the practice of new but that hasnt happened yet were here to talk to well to marry a man who was the associations chairman until last year we wanted to find out what he thinks of the increasing demand from using free will to concerns about Animal Welfare. Brames and what i mean i can go. Surely theres a huge part of the industry doesnt moment so i guess. You mean by the industry the bias from germany for example like they dont. Have any specific in germany who want to stop the so there isnt any going from say 100. To 2100 change and thats what growers look at and until the time when that affects their market. Base why for them to look after shape is where the shares you go solution with. That procedure is still an exception among sheep farmers merryman says that mules in free will is available if clients are willing to pay more for. But there is not. Such a thing about money in the end isnt it. A business. Strategy. Its not yet clear what the associations policy on meals in will be under its new chairman. We wanted to interview some government officials about Animal Welfare problems in the industry but they declined our requests so we talked to a member of the New South Wales parliament. We have an animal that cant adapt to the Australian Environment so it requires all these interventions by humans and some of those interventions highly controversial some of them. Very serious invasive treatments or procedures and theyre often done without pain relief and if we did to a cat or dog in australia you would be prosecuted and possibly put in. Proposed legislation to end the practice of me. When i 1st brought the motion in court to call on the house to commend the progressive growers and to move away from using and in the meantime provide absolute objection the next morning when the motion comes on for debate or consideration the governments object. 11 percent of a strain is exported to europe. About 75 percent to sent to china for processing some of that ends up in europe to fabric or clothing. Weve come to shanghai to visit a Processing Plant thats by a french company. That is here to make sure that the mules in free will that his. Company demand is not mixed together with inferior products in the. Fields used to let you know we want to inspect this facility for ourselves and then there is this equipment is processing 20 tons of will play day one ton and it is essential for us to make sure that the well from our pharmacy stay separate from the rest of the material that of. Elizabeth the. First bales of roll wool that share Common Properties including 5 the length crimping and fineness a combined into Production Units that way several tons h. Every unit is given a number then the wool is washed and dried several times. Production manager Chris Mckenzie keeps a close eye on the documentation so that the different varieties of wool stay separate. We see. What the 40 yeah. But i. Like to think. The difference. Between real. Life things i think our price is but that principle. Is what if. The old its been washed and dried it is then processed into finished gian the batch number stays the same throughout the system which includes several different production sites and often Different Companies in various countries. Few businesses take the time and expense to keep such a close watch on the production process. And thats really a good start off that adds to the cost of our products and we put a lot of effort into doing these kinds of checks because we hold ourselves to a higher standard. That makes our products more expensive mark is proof because im straight out. Weve come to berlin for the fashion week shows that are held here twice a year. We are some of the exhibitors if they know where the well used in their products comes from. The compass the tide and. The r. s is produced in australia. They pay a lot of attention to sustainability there and they make an effort to see that the sheep are treated humanely taught not bad habits are very pleased about that because our customers are concerned about Animal Welfare its a monster couldnt promise ill come. Back but i dont know anything about conditions at specific farms in new zealand or australia its. Do your suppliers know whether the sheep have been subjected to musing for example wasnt a child and just as a Family Owned Company we need to trust the people we work with is on. Many of the exhibitors rely on their manufactures to tell them where the wool comes from. Is true its possible they might buy another batch of wool somewhere else but if they do they tell me like this comes from patagonia product the shooter comes to c. N. N. s mishan to forge a check on all of our distributors i am in canada and since fish fish caught were constantly in contact with them to make sure that the well comes from sheep that are raised humanely just the same ones now take advantage of. Germanys minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Good miller is committed to Sustainable Clothing production miller is opposed to musing but says more research is needed on this problem his ministry has developed a new seal of approval for companies that produce socially and ecologically sustainable textiles. Standards also apply to Animal Welfare. And. It had been good and not for as me though serious as the seal is associated with a large number of basic standards which of course also cover Animal Welfare as far as all is concerned you know i would as was but this is a very complex situation. As i said the sea will also deal with Animal Welfare standards met and because. It is my staff will explain the details of. The spokesperson says that the minister will provide a statement later today. You might think that good mullo would welcome the opportunity to discuss a project thats very important to him and. We try to talk to him again later but he declined our request for an interview. So we went back to the Consumer Initiative office. Spirit does this new seal apply to Animal Welfare not mine im vison but its based on what ive learned so 5 plays only a small role if any too small the Certification Program needs to address the issue of Animal Welfare people who are concerned about this need to make their voices heard and if the minister takes those concerns into account hell be on the right track and done. But how can consumers make sure that theyre buying sustainable products. Every purchase makes a statement and people need to pay more attention to the sources of the textile products that they buy that way we can effect change. But how much influence to consumers really have how will they react when they find out more about how merino wool is produced. The young women we met earlier was shocked when we showed them videos that we put together for this report. I didnt know that it was this bad the companys always put a positive spin on it and they tell you that was a wonderful material but when you see Something Like this you think twice before you buy well again i go through. The chemical fortune of this i think id pay more for well that was produced in humane conditions. Dont suffer if you shop and get. Out of. The big chain store should do something about this they have the financial clout to make sure that well is produced humanely. But a lot of clothing manufacturers dont pay a lot of attention to Animal Welfare and many retailers dont ask enough questions about where they will comes from a strain will produce is a good. Barges on with the teams traditional or humane methods consumers who are concerned about the situation will have to put pressure on the textile industry. To female. More and more women in the indian state somehow rush trying to come in line tennis. Taking a sustainable approach to managing. Their family says. 30 minutes on. This is the deputy news live from berlin the plight of women escaping genocidal violence in their home countries only to fall prey to sex trucks the 1st. Several injured refugee in bangladesh who has been forced into prostitution how many others share her fate and why is nobody doing anything to how close she cannot service