SA SHEARERS Trent Higgins and Sean Harrison experienced the power of social media firsthand last week.
Trent uploaded two photos to facebook, one showing Mr Harrison holding a sheep Mr Higgins had just shorn, and the second being a copy of a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals poster - featuring a fake bloodied sheep - used in the animal rights group's anti-wool campaign.
Within hours the post had been shared thousands of times, a response the pair never expected.
"A few of us were at the pub on Wednesday night and saw the PETA picture online, so we were discussing it," Mr Higgins said.
"The next day Sean and I were shearing and talking about it and that's when we had the idea to take a photo and put it on facebook.
"I didn't think it would get that much attention. Most of the feedback has been positive."
Mr Higgin's post prohibited comments, but when Stock Journal posted the images on its facebook page on Saturday, hundreds of people spoke-out on the issue within hours.
He said he had been shearing for about 10 years and ran his own business, LT Shearing, and he wanted to show people the shearing industry was not cruel, as the PETA poster depicted.
"Obviously shearing benefits us but it is also beneficial for the sheep," he said.
"We usually crutch sheep at about six months to prevent them getting flyblown and stains in the wool.
"Then they are shorn at about 10-12 months. If they aren't shorn for a couple of years they get a lot of wool on them and if it gets wet it gets heavy, making it difficult for them to stand up."
He said no-one in their right mind would shear a sheep as young as the one used in the PETA poster.
"They are definitely not hacked up like that either," he said.
"They do get scratched but it is not something we mean to do and we don't want to do it."