The picture above has been captioned by PETA with: THIS is what most sheep used for wool look like after "shearing".

But many people, including animal-activists and sheep shearers, disagree.

The image of an Australian musician holding the explicity graphic and mutilated body of a lamb was animal rights group PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals') way of advertising their latest expose on sheep shearing.

Golden Shears TV Shearing action from the 2015 Golden Shears in Masterton, the world's premier shearing and wool handling championship.

The Facebook post links to horrific videos of sheep being beaten, punched and bloodily stitched up, footage of the one cruel video PETA claims to have taken place in an Australian shearing station.

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The post received over 40,000 likes - but many comments conveyed anger at the violent depiction, reflected by the shearing community.

New Zealand shearer Mark Barrowcliffe, 43, said he had worked shearing sheep in Australia for 12 years but he had never seen anything like the video depicts. "I'm quite confident that any shed I've shorn in, if anything happened like that, the farmer would have dealt with it pretty swiftly and sharply, as indeed would the contractors that we were working for."

As a shearer with 25 years experience, Barrowcliffe said sheep welfare "is of huge importance" to the shearing industry. He invited anyone who thinks shearers are cruel to come out to his workplace.

Some of the footage looked very similar to videos PETA had posted before, he said. "This time...they've tried to sensationalise it a bit more."

Federated Farmers meat and fibre industry chair Rick Powdrell said the PETA campaign was disappointing.

"Our livestock are our livelihood, we treat them with a lot of respect," he said. The sheep benefit from shearing because it protects them from fly strike, where sheep could be infected by flies and maggots, he said.

Powdrell was a shearer when he was younger. "I can take you to any wool shed in the world with properly trained shearers and you'd just be amazed to watch them," he said. "It's a wonderful sight."

He said while Federated Farmers do not condone any abuse toward livestock, people should be careful about PETA material.

"If you dig into this organisation, there are question marks about the way they operate."

Yet he admitted there have been cases of sheep abuse in New Zealand, "I'll be quite honest, I've heard of sheep...not handled as well during shearing as they should be."

One incident occurred in Canterbury last year, when four men filmed themselves drunkenly shearing a sheep, resulting in deep cuts and blood dripping down its legs.

The SPCA reported 642 sheep welfare complaints were received by their organisation last year - but none of them were to do with shearing abuse.

SPCA regional manager Sue Baudet said a lot of complaints were actually about sheep that hadn't been shorn and were getting too hot.

She said she thought there were more important things for PETA to focus on.