A bit of light relief on a tense day. What is the world coming to? Sheep on an outback farm were shorn of their dignity as well as their wool when a shearer swore at them, an animal rights group has claimed. The complaint lodged by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) against Ken Turner, a grazier on the remote Boorungie Station in New South Wales, has provoked a debate about whether verbal abuse of animals constitutes an act of violence. Peta formally complained to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), based on video evidence gathered by an undercover operative working at the station. “The allegation was that bad language was used by an employee on the property in front of the sheep and that they could have been offended by the use of bad language,” Mr Turner said. Steve Coleman, the chief executive of RSPCA New South Wales, confirmed that his organisation had investigated the complaint, and said that the abuse had gone beyond merely how the sheep were spoken to. The case collapsed when it was realised that the footage of the sheep being abused would not be legally admissible. Mr Turner does not know whether the sheep had their feelings hurt. “I still haven’t had a sheep come to me [to complain]. They didn’t even look offended to me after they were shorn,” he said.
