Thursday, January 20 2005 14:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Delhi: Member of Parliament and Animal Welfare Board member Maneka Gandhi has dispatched a letter to more than 100 Indian companies to ask them to make the decision not to use Australian Wool until two abusive practices of Australian sheep, "mulesing" (live flaying) and live exports, are ended.

The companies include big names such as Oswal Woollen Mills Ltd and Reid & Taylor.

Gandhi's letter is in support of PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) international campaign against lamb mutilations and live sheep shipments, which has led to protests on three continents, and a fast-growing international boycott of Australian Wool.

India is the fifth largest export customer of Australian Wool. During 2002-2003, Australia supplied around 60 per cent of India's raw wool imports and almost all of its apparel-grade wool.

PETA launched the boycott late last year after the Australian Government ignored repeated pleas to ban live sheep exports, in which thousands of sheep die each year, and to end "mulesing", a crude mutilation in which farmers use gardening shears to cut large chunks of flesh from lambs' hindquarters without any painkillers.

Prestigious US-based international retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has joined the boycott.

J Crew, an $ 800 million US company, and UK-based New Look, a billion dollar company, have announced that they will not knowingly sell cruelly obtained Australian Wool.

PETA is currently protesting another international retailer, Benetton, which continues to sell garments containing Australian Wool.

When their wool is no longer needed, millions of sheep are shipped thousands of miles through all weather extremes, mired in their own waste aboard open-deck, multi-tiered death ships bound for the Middle East, where their throats are slit while they are fully conscious.

Many sick and injured sheep, treated as mere cargo, are thrown overboard to the sharks or are ground up alive in mincing machines. In 2003, Cormo Express disaster captured international headlines as more than 5,000 sheep died at sea.

"Indians are a gentle people. We do not need the blood of Australian sheep on our hands, but everyone who buys/sells Australian merino wool and its products is contributing to these horrific practices", wrote Gandhi in her letter to Indian companies.

"Please let me know that you will immediately refuse to use Australian wool. ... Together, we can help put a stop to immeasurable suffering."