Hidden-camera video shot during an undercover investigation of sheep shearing in Australia and the U.S. has revealed what the animal rights organization PETA says is evidence of widespread animal abuse, including kicking, stomping, and gaping wounds to skin, ears and penises inflicted by clippers. 
 
 “PETA's in-depth investigations show that—no matter how much anyone might wish it to be so -- there is no such thing as ‘humane’ wool,” said Daphna Nachminovitch, a top official at PETA, who added that her group is asking consumers not to wear clothes made of the fabric. “The industry is infested with violence and PETA documented cruelty in nearly every shearing shed that we entered.” 
 
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 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also said that it believed specific U.S. companies had probably purchased wool produced by the ranches visited by investigators in Australia and the U.S, but NBC News was not able to establish that any of the named companies had bought wool sourced directly from those ranches. 
 
 In Australia, PETA sent three undercover investigators to 19 different sheep shearing sheds run by nine different contractors in three states between late 2012 and March 2014, and shot video between October 2013 and February 2014. Australia is the source of about 20 percent of the world’s wool, including 80 percent of the merino wool. PETA estimates that the shearing contractors it investigated may account for more than 5 percent of Australia’s annual output. 
 
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 PETA charges that in Australia, workers for seven contractors kicked, stomped or stood on animals’ heads necks and hind limbs, while workers for eight contractors punched or struck sheep with clippers. One worker allegedly beat a lamb over the head with a hammer. Workers for five contractors allegedly threw sheep and or slammed their heads and bodies against floors. 
 
 When shearing created flesh wounds, PETA says workers did not administer painkillers before using needles and thread to close the cuts. 
 
 A five-minute edited video compilation provided to NBC News by PETA shows alleged incidents of abuse at six of the Australian ranches. 
 
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 A representative of a non-profit trade group owned by more than 27,000 Australian woolgrowers, defended the standard of care at Australian sheep ranches. 
 
 “Australian wool growers genuinely care for health and welfare of their animals so such alleged behavior is very concerning,” said Michelle Lee of Australian Wool Innovation. "AWI categorically and unequivocally condemns the mistreatment of animals. AWI has invested $2.8 million in the training of shearers and wool handlers, training in excess of 4,500 in the past twelve months.” 
 
 In the U.S., which produces a tiny percentage of the world’s wool and is a net importer of wool, a PETA investigator worked undercover for a sheep shearing company for seven weeks between mid-March and mid-May 2014. 
 
 The investigator went to 25 ranches in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nebraska while working for the shearing company and alleged that he witnessed animal cruelty by three shearers for the company and two ranchers at 14 of the ranches where the company worked. 
 
 PETA has asked local authorities in two Colorado counties to file criminal charges against a specific shearer because of alleged acts of abuse witnessed at two ranches. The investigator said he saw the shearer bending and twisting the necks of sheep, stomping on their necks and limbs and poking his fingers into their eyes at the Zahniser ranch in Montrose County, Colorado and a ranch in Moffat County, Colorado. 
 
 He also alleged that at the Zahniser ranch the shearer cut a three to four-inch strip of skin off of a sheep’s ear without offering any pain relief. At the Moffat County ranch, the investigator says he witnessed the same shearer allegedly twisting a sheep’s neck so severely that the animal may have died. A voice can be heard on the videotape saying, “I might have killed it.” 
 
 A five-minute edited video compilation shot at U.S. locations and provided to NBC News by PETA shows alleged incidents of abuse at 8 ranches, including what PETA says is an ill ram that was left to die overnight on a trailer, and additional instances of sheep suffering large wounds from being sheared. 
 
 Messages left at the Zahniser and Moffat County ranches were not returned, and the shearing company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Without viewing the PETA video shot in the U.S., a representative of the main U.S. wool industry trade group, the American Wool Council, said that the behavior described by PETA was “unacceptable.” 
 
 “We do not condone or support the actions of anyone that results in the abuse of sheep either intentionally or unintentionally,” said Rita Samuelson. “Rough handling of animals that might result in the injury of a sheep is an unacceptable maneuver during the shearing process or anytime when sheep are handled. … Kicking, throwing and poking the eyes of sheep are also unacceptable practices.” 
 
 The American Wool Council’s parent group, the American Sheep Institute, has published a guide to animal care for sheep producers and their employees that is available on its website. 
 
 PETA forwarded the video and written complaints to authorities in Montrose and Moffat counties in Colorado. Lt. Gary Jackson of the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office said he had prepared a report and sent it to the county district attorney for review. “I saw nothing in the video that is outside the norm for that industry,” said Lt. Jackson. The district attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 But Moffat County Sheriff Tim Jantz said that the content of the video “is highly concerning and we are taking it very seriously. We immediately launched an investigation and that investigation is ongoing. If our investigation shows it is warranted, we will file any appropriate criminal charges.” ||||| You’ve never seen anything like this before. These videos will make you think twice about buying that wool sweater or scarf. 
 
 Update: In August 2016, officials in Victoria charged a minimum of six shearers with at least 70 counts of cruelty to animals, the first-ever charges anywhere in the world against wool-industry workers for abusing sheep. In December 2016, the first defendant pleaded guilty and was banned from shearing or being in charge of farmed animals for two years. In February and March 2017, four more shearers pleaded guilty to more than 60 counts of cruelty. All were banned from shearing or being in charge of sheep for up to two years and fined up to $3,500. The sixth shearer was convicted of cruelty to animals in May 2017. He was banned from shearing or being in charge of sheep for six months and fined $2,000. 
 
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 s first reported by NBC, disturbing PETA eyewitness investigations—the first of their kind—reveal that workers killed, beat, stomped on, kicked, mutilated, and threw sheep around as they sheared them in Australia, the world’s top wool exporter, and the U.S. Please, won’t you help these animals? 
 
 As you can see in this groundbreaking video footage, sheep shearers in Australia violently punched these gentle animals in the face and beat and jabbed them in the head with sharp metal clippers and even a hammer. These attacks often left the petrified sheep bleeding from their eyes, noses, and mouths. 
 
 It’s not better for sheep in the United States. One shearer repeatedly twisted and bent a sheep’s neck, breaking it. After the shearer kicked the sheep head-first down a chute, PETA’s investigator found her dead. The shearer bent, twisted, and bounced his bodyweight on dozens of sheep’s necks and forelimbs and poked his fingers into sheep’s eyes. See for yourself:
– Shearing sheep is one thing, activists say—and shearing them while shouting or attacking the animals is quite another. That was PETA's argument against Australian sheep shearers last year when the group revealed video shot by an undercover operative, ABC News Australia reports. But the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals disallowed the video for reasons that aren't clear, and the case turned on alleged verbal abuse. "I think it is conceivable that verbal abuse of an extreme nature against an animal, whether it be human, sheep or otherwise, could constitute an act of violence," says Nicolah Donovan, president of Lawyers for Animals. But Ken Turner, head of the sheep-shearing station involved, scoffed at the notion. "I still haven't had a sheep come to me (to complain)—they didn't even look offended to me after they were shorn," says Turner, 9 News reports. "I thought, is this a joke? Is this April Fools?" PETA lost the case, and some media outlets poked fun at the story. But video on PETA's website (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT) appears to show Australian sheep shearers punching sheep in the face and striking them in the head with a hammer and metal clippers. Sheeps were reportedly left bleeding from their mouths, noses, and eyes. And some graziers recently admitted that livestock work requires "a degree of intimidation," says ABC. "There is no such thing as 'humane' wool," a PETA official told NBC News last year. "The industry is infested with violence and PETA documented cruelty in nearly every shearing shed that we entered."