People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ latest campaign video shows musician Jona Weinhofen holding a fake bloody sheep carcass, with the caption: ‘Here’s the rest of your wool coat’.

Rupanyup’s Sunnydale White Suffolk Stud owner Andrew Weidemann said the campaign was offensive to shearers in the region.

‘‘Shearing is an absolute necessity with livestock. The sheep grow the wool and if we don’t shear it, they get lice and flies,’’ he said.

‘‘I would say 99.9 per cent of people would disagree with the stance PETA takes.

‘‘They have a radical view about animals in general and don’t even believe people should keep animals at home as pets.

‘‘They think all animals should live free in the wild, but there wouldn’t be an animal population if that was the case.’’

Mr Weidemann said Wimmera shearers were extremely professional.

‘‘Shearers are well trained and taught techniques to minimise the effect on the animal,’’ he said.

‘‘The training has changed dramatically in the past 20 to 30 years and young people are taught to shear properly.

‘‘We are getting less people becoming shearers today and these sorts of animal rights campaigns put more and more pressure on the industry.’’

Member for Mallee Andrew Broad said PETA did not have a view about trying to improve things because its members thought animals were equal to humans.

‘‘They think that animals shouldn’t be eaten, animal clothing shouldn’t be worn and dairy milk shouldn’t be drunk,’’ he said.

‘‘They’ve largely played their hand out now over time to show that they’re just a bunch of irrelevant radicals who no one really takes seriously any more.

‘‘They didn’t even use a real sheep for their ad, and they used a musician who I’ve never heard of and who has probably never been in a shearing shed in his life.’’

Mr Broad said wool was one of the most animal-friendly and sustainable fibres and Wimmera graziers should be proud to produce it.

‘‘What other farmed animals live their whole life outside in a paddock, grazing and – when it runs short of food – gets fed?’’ he said.

‘‘Sheep have low stress and they get a haircut.

‘‘Compared with a battery hen, it’s a pretty good life.’’

Victorian Farmers Federation Livestock Group president Ian Feldtmann said the vast majority of wool growers and shearers treated sheep well.

‘‘It’s in our own interest to treat our animals humanely, given good treatment means healthy animals and good productivity,’’ he said.

‘‘As I’ve said before, like most producers, I’d kick anyone who mistreated my sheep off my property.

‘‘All Australians should realise that PETA is all about portraying extreme behaviour as the norm.’’

PETA has come under fire for not disclosing in the video that the lamb was a prop and not a real carcass.

The group defended the advertisement and said it followed an investigation into shearing sheds across three states in Australia that found widespread cruelty.