ONE of Sydney's elite private school, The King's School, has been slammed for encouraging its students to tackle sheep as part of a rugby training drill in Orange, in April.
Video footage emerged of students crash tackling and flipping sheep on the Orange property, during the April school holidays.
The incident, posted on Facebook by a teacher and later removed, involved members of the first and second rugby teams.
The school defended the "strength and team-building exercise", saying neither animals nor boys were injured.
School headmaster Dr Tim Hawkes said the exercise was "not dissimilar to that undertaken by shearers".
"I am satisfied that the activity was properly supervised and that no animals or boys were hurt," he told ABC News.
"The task was supervised closely by the farmer… The two rugby coaches involved were assured by the farmer beforehand that the activity was safe and all the more so because he would be supervising it carefully. No animals were injured in the exercise. Neither were any boys."
Footage of the incident shows the students laughing and cheering as they chase sheep across a paddock before tackling the animals, dragging them to designated squares and flipping them onto their backs.
The RSPCA has reportedly attended the school to investigate the incident.