Owning wool combing mill in the Czech Republic, and buying about 90,000 bales of Australian wool each year, former director of Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), Laurence Modiano's family company is the biggest in Europe. Recently, Modiano released a petition co-signed by 70 per cent of the world's major early stage processers, calling for pain relief to be made a legal requirement for any on-farm surgical procedures for sheep of any age.

According to Modiano, new national animal welfare guidelines released last month, which recommended that pain relief be optional for sheep under six months of age, were an invitation for radical animal rights groups such as People For Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to attack the industry.

Now Australian wool producers are encouraged to complete a National Wool Declaration for the Australian Wool Exchange, revealing whether their flock has been mulesed — the surgical procedure where skin is cut from the breech of lambs to prevent potential blow fly strike. This year more than 12 per cent of growers declared that they did not mules their sheep and about 21 per cent said they had used pain relief medication.

The industry however, said based on sales figures of the registered surgical spray Tri-Solfen, which was developed for post-mulesing, the number of growers administering pain relief was more likely close to 70 per cent.