Taskforce offered a Swedish activist a free trip to Australia if the activist agreed not to go on camera nor do an interview. As a consequence, all clothing manufacturers and retailers in Sweden banned the purchase of wool from sheep that have been mulesed. Since then, the Swedish Agriculture Minister, Eskil Erlandsson, has said that "he was satisfied that Australia appeared to be responding to international concerns about mulesing and that bans or boycotts were not necessary". "But in the long run we hope there is going to be a final end to all sorts of mulesing." Some European retailers have agreed to lift their ban on Australian Merino wool if pain relief is used during mulesing. The retailers have not been named in an effort to avoid any backlash. In order to help comply with the 2010 deadline to phase out mulesing, Western Australia's governmental research stations ceased mulesing their sheep on 1 April 2008. Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) had pledged to phase out mulesing by 2010, but PETA accused the Australian wool industry of trying to extend this deadline. On 27 July 2009, the Australian wool industry dumped its long-standing pledge to phase out mulesing by the end of 2010, a move that was harshly criticized by animal welfare groups and led to criticism by some farmers. The AWI maintains that pursuing a deadline approach to eliminating mulesing was not based on "sound health and welfare science" and risked a serious deterioration in the welfare of sheep. Alternative methods of mulesing, such as using clips and intradermals, were "not sufficiently developed to support a wholesale cessation of the procedure in 2010", AWI said. The AWI's approach is "The ultimate long-term aim of the program is to reduce the reliance on mulesing." and "supports all woolgrowers in their choice of best practice animal health and hygiene in flystrike control", but aims to provide animal welfare improvements such as pain relief and antiseptics. In December 2020, Four Paws compiled a list of fashion brands who have taken a stance against mulesing. Alternatives Freeze branding In response to intense consumer pressure for an alternative to mulesing an adaptation of the freeze branding branding process was hit upon in the 2010s. The new technique was soon christened steining after its developer, John Steinfort, an Australian veterinary scientist. In 2019 Australian Wool Network (AWN), a private corporation servicing the Australian wool industry, provided