Animal abuse allegations included swearing at sheep

A farmer, criticized for allowing sheep-shearers to swear at his animals, joked that the animals have never complained about salty language.

Ken Turner, of New South Wales in Australia, was reported to animal welfare group RSPCA after workers reported that the behavior distressed the herd, reports the Newcastle Herald. A complaint was lodged by PETA, to whom workers had sent undercover footage of abuse they say was physical as well as verbal, "including stomping and punching of the sheep."

"If foul language were the worst that sheep in Australian shearing sheds had to endure, then no complaint would have been filed," a spokeswoman told the newspaper.

But the case was dropped, leaving Turner to tour the press making light of the allegations: "they didn’t even look offended to me after they were shorn," he told a radio host last week.