Wool industry extends animal welfare training after shearers' sentencing for sheep abuse

Disclaimer: This article contains graphic details and images about animal abuse.

New Zealand's wool industry will continue to fund a specialised animal welfare training programme for shearers, in light of lamb abuse cases in the wool shed.

Government and industry set up the "animal welfare and calm sheep handling" pilot in late 2025, in response to a Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) investigation into shearing practices across Aotearoa.

Two shearers have been sentenced as part of the investigation, and two more are still before the courts facing charges.

Last week, North Otago shearer Damian Fraser was sentenced to two months' home detention for seven charges of abuse and ill-treatment of sheep when shearing in Otago.

In August, shearer Dylan Manthey of Palmerston North was sentenced to six months' community detention and 12 months' supervision for three charges while shearing in Canterbury in January 2024.

The pair featured in a video exposé by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in late 2024 that sparked MPI's investigation.

It featured 560 hours of video footage taken inside wool sheds across Aotearoa, and revealed violent treatment of sheep by shearers. Some examples showed sheep being thrown and slammed onto wooden floors, shearers striking sheep with their tools or fists, and restraining sheep by the neck with their feet.

Improving animal welfare in the shed

A handful of local companies and organisations agreed to fund the animal welfare course again after a request by its training provider Elite Wool Industry Training due to high demand for it.

Ross McIsaac, the chief executive of one funder, the New Zealand Wool Collective, said the first course trained up 480 shearers, and the extension could help another 400 students.

"We obviously had these issues with animal welfare and wool harvesting, highlighted by PETA," he said.

"Obviously that behaviour is really not acceptable. So while the vast, vast majority of people in the shed are doing the right thing, it highlighted the need to deliver more training around what our responsibilities are with looking after animals, and also what the expectations are of our customers as well."

MPI contributed $25,000 to the pilot last year, but not towards this second round.

MPI's compliance and response director, Glen Burrell, said it was continuing to support the sector by funding the Wool Collective, and also this year's cadets at Zentera, formerly the New Zealand Merino Company.

"The pilot was developed and designed to improve animal welfare knowledge, strengthen industry capability, and support the adoption of good practice across the wool harvesting workforce," Burrell said.

"We welcome industry investment in initiatives that contribute to these outcomes and continue to encourage industry-led initiatives that build workforce capability and support positive animal welfare outcomes."

The New Zealand Shearing Contractors' Association, PGG Wrightson, Zentera (formerly the New Zealand Merino Company), the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand and the collective would fund the extension.

Sustainable national training 'for the sake of the industry'

Elite Wool Industry Training founder and director Tom Wilson said the incidents had galvanised the industry to act.

"There's probably just the odd individual, and we're all getting tarred with the same brush really, and it's not true," he said.

"But we have to address it because it has been brought to the fore, and this is a good chance for us to do it.

"It's definitely something that's been needed."

Wilson said it wanted a new system up and running with animal welfare embedded into it that could also be marketed.

"We want all of this as a lead-in and [it] should be embedded in a national, consistent training programme that's sustainable going forward for the sake of the industry."

Wilson said it struggled to fill gaps in the industry because of a lack of funding, and NZQA options had fallen "off the rails" over the years for different reasons.

"It's never been taken up again, we've tried it couple of times, but these programmes drop off the framework of the education system and they're very hard to bring back on again."

He said it was important to bolster training for the industry's sake.

"When the end users see these things, then they tend not to buy wool, and if we start losing sheep numbers, we start losing jobs."

However, New Zealand's formal wool training landscape was facing changes going into 2027, with some NZQA level three qualifications in shearing, wool handling and pressing being retired without replacement, though advanced wool classing would be available at level four and five.

Meanwhile, McIsaac said it was important shearers had the skills and understanding necessary to do the job, while helping maintain the industry's reputation.

"We've got to be able to demonstrate that our wool is produced and harvested responsibly and ethically if we want to keep supplying different brands and different markets," he said.

"Otherwise, we could see people start to turn away from wool, so there's a really big risk there."