A shearer training course on animal welfare and calm handling of sheep will be extended to about 400 more trainees after the first intake of 480 shearers, with the wool industry picking up the bill for the second round.

The extension, reported by RNZ on 29 October, follows the sentencing last week of North Otago shearer Damian Fraser to two months' home detention on seven charges of ill-treating sheep while shearing in Otago.

The course was set up in late 2025 as a joint government and industry pilot after a Ministry for Primary Industries investigation into shearing practices. That investigation was triggered by footage released by the animal rights group PETA in late 2024, drawn from about 560 hours filmed inside woolsheds, which showed sheep being thrown, struck and restrained by the neck.

Two shearers have now been sentenced and two more remain before the courts. In August, Palmerston North shearer Dylan Manthey received 12 months' supervision and six months' community detention on three charges over shearing in Canterbury in January 2024.

Training provider Elite Wool Industry Training asked for the course to continue because of demand. Paying for the second round are PGG Wrightson and Zentera (the former New Zealand Merino Company), alongside the New Zealand Wool Collective, the New Zealand Shearing Contractors' Association and Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ).

MPI put $25,000 into the pilot last year but is not contributing to the extension, although it continues to fund the Wool Collective and this year's Zentera cadets.

New Zealand Wool Collective chief executive Ross McIsaac told RNZ that most people in woolsheds did the right thing, but the footage showed the industry needed more training on what was owed to animals and what customers expected. The behaviour shown was "really not acceptable," he said.

Elite Wool Industry Training founder Tom Wilson said a handful of individuals were at fault but the whole sector was being judged, and the incidents had forced the industry to act. He wants animal welfare built into a nationally consistent training programme that the industry can also use in its marketing.

Wilson also flagged a looming gap in formal qualifications. Going into 2027, several level three NZQA qualifications covering shearing, wool handling and pressing are due to be retired without replacement, while advanced wool classing remains at levels four and five. He said a lack of funding had made it hard to fill training gaps.

Glen Burrell, MPI's director of compliance and response, said the pilot aimed to lift welfare knowledge and strengthen industry capability, and that MPI welcomed industry-led initiatives.

The stakes for sheep-farming regions such as Southland are considerable as the main-shear season approaches. McIsaac warned that wool buyers and brands would walk away if they could not be sure fleeces were harvested responsibly, which he described as a significant risk to the sector.

No timetable has been given for turning the course into a permanent national programme, and the two remaining prosecutions are yet to be decided.