Because children as young as 15 years old arecurrently undertaking shearing duties and witnessing the bloody, violent nature of sheep shearing firsthand, PETA today sent a letter to Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, Brooke van Velden, calling on her to protect sheep and vulnerable young people by raising the minimum required age for wool industry employees to 20, in line with the country’s age of majority. The request comes on the heels of an explosive investigation revealing that workers beat, whipped, kicked, and stomped terrified sheep on farms that supply ZQ-certified and other wool.

PETA notes that the young workers are mostly males with developing brains, which studies have shown manage aggression more effectively with age. In addition to being exposed to rampant amphetamine use in the industry, participating in or witnessing such cruelty to animals can causea range of mental health issues and increase the likelihood that the individuals will then go on to engage in harmful treatment of others.

“Forcing impressionable children to witness, and even partake, as terrified sheep are shorn to bloody bits in filthy sheds is unacceptable, and it should be illegal,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on the New Zealand government to keep young people from harming animals and being harmed themselves.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

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