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Comment by pugworthy | Hacker News Reader

Though a bit over the top in claims, I'd agree that yes, injury to the sheep is probably to be expected at some level.

From the following...

https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-are-the-animal-w...

...there is this quote...

"nicks and cuts may occur if the sheep does struggle, or has excessively wrinkled skin or the shearer is distracted or under time pressure"

Time pressure - exactly what such a competition would encourage. I'm not saying it happens, but the urge to hurry could certainly lead to such a thing.

I mean if winning is the thing, then once the sheep is sheered, who cares about the sheep anymore? It's all about the wool and what you do with it. In 3 hours.

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Asked a former champion shearer, who said that maybe 1% of sheep being sheared get nicked, more likely by inexperienced shearers. If the skin is not held taut, nicks will happen. For people who shave their faces with a blade, how often do you nick yourself? Saying "half the sheep's skin" is a ludicrous claim. It's not like skinning mink - you want the animal to survive the process!

lol, you reckon most commercial mass scale sheep farmers hire world champion sheep shearers?

Not world, just state. It is a skill where both speed and quality benefit the employer. Would a software company prefer programmers who produce buggy code slowly, or better programmers? [considers state of software industry ...] Uh, never mind.

I expect these sheep in particular are probably vetted for the process and well-handled, and thus less anxious during shearing. It can be, and is accomplished with little fuss. [1] They're also judged on the shearing, I suspect that means the "blanket" directly from the sheep, meaning they really want to have a happy sheep.

Having said that, animal handling done at any large scale always seems awful to me.

[1]: https://m.youtube.com/@rightchoiceshearing/videos

Sheep To Shawl Hardcore Edition - it starts *eighteen months* before the day you shear, as you breed the most likely candidates to pick for The Big Day. Six months later lambing, a year after that the contest proper.

> I mean if winning is the thing, then once the sheep is sheered, who cares about the sheep anymore? It's all about the wool and what you do with it.

One of the scoring criteria of the Maryland competition featured here is "Appearance of sheep after shearing". I'd assume judges would not look kindly a sheep covered in blood

You can literally watch a video from the competition at the end of the article, including seeing a portion of a shearing. Fast, and definitely not brutal.

Competitions like these raise interest in small-scale, and thus more humane, sheep-raising, as well as awareness of products from their far more expensive wool.

The farmer.

No-one wants animals getting injured and no-one wants sheep looking like a mangy floor mop when they're done.

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