Shearer's seminars aimto save neglected sheep

SOUTH Gippsland shearer Chloe Dann is on a self-appointed mission to improve sheep welfare across the state through a series of free entry-level community seminars for hobby farmers and small mob owners, including a visit to the Inverleigh Hall on Saturday 13 June at 1pm.

The Sheep Basics workshop is designed to be easily understood by people new to sheep ownership as well as interesting for those who have owned sheep for some time, with the ultimate goal to improve animal welfare in the hobby farming space.

Dann devised the seminars after becoming frustrated with the lack of education available to non-commercial farmers and small mob owners – something she discovered in her work as a shearer.

After seeing too many sick and deceased animals from ultimately preventable illnesses, she decided to do something about it.

She said she first fell into shearing while working as a farm assistant on Churchill Island, before eventually growing to love it.

“It’s a very satisfying job, it’s pretty amazing being able to start with a woolly sheep and then have it look fresh and nice and beautiful afterwards,” she said.

After a while, she was more interested in the education side.

“You see a lot of both intentional and unintentional neglect because it’s not a money-making business for (some) people,” she said.

Dann said lack of education is one of the biggest reasons unintentional neglect with animals takes place.

“When people don’t know what’s going on, they don’t realise that there’s something wrong,” she said.

“The biggest thing is parasite mismanagement, which is one of the biggest killers of sheep and is so preventable – you just need to worm them and know that what you’re worming with is going to work. Fly strike, not shearing regularly and hooves are problems sometimes as well.”

She said the seminars are entirely funded out of her own pocket. “It costs me money,” she said.

“But, my overall goal is to improve sheep care and welfare, so it’s a labour of love.”