Score! Adidas Helps Australian Sheep!

Adidas—the second-largest sporting-goods manufacturer in the world—has just taken steps to reduce the suffering of sheep in its supply chain. Following nearly four months of discussions with PETA, Adidas has now decided to boycott all wool from mulesed lambs—including those mulesed using clips.Frank Henke, Global Director of Social and Environmental Affairs for Adidas, told PETA: “Adidas has given a clear briefing to its development and sourcing teams to not use merino wool from sources where mulesing practices are applied. Clip-mulesing is also rejected by our internal policy. … [W]e would select another material unless we obtain clear confirmation from the source that mulesing practices were stopped.” As some readers might know, mulesing is a standard mutilation used by Australian woolgrowers in which lambs have huge chunks of skin and flesh carved from their backsides with big, metal shears (like gardening shears). This gruesome procedure is used in a misguided attempt to protect sheep from maggot infestation, despite the fact that humane methods (e.g., in which animals’ skin isn’t removed) exist. In an attempt to win back clothing retailers that are boycotting Australian wool over this issue, some farmers have started using clips to mules their animals. Clip mulesing involves clamping clips onto the animals’ skin so tightly that the skin dies and falls off. This method still causes pain, but is not bloody (and therefore less visually shocking), which lead the Australian wool industry to hope that it would be acceptable to clothing retailers. But Adidas—like HUGO BOSS, Perry Ellis, H&M, and many other companies—is not buying this new mutilation … which is great news, since it will help animals today and push the Australian wool industry to stop all forms of mulesing once and for all.This decision by Adidas comes just one week after Australia’s Federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, wrote a publicized letter to Adidas thanking it for supporting Australian wool and trying to justify the mulesing mutilation to them. Bad timing, Mr. Burke. Three cheers for Adidas for refusing to support unnecessary and cruel lamb mutilations down under! You can help! Take a few seconds to sign our petition urging the Australian Prime Minister to help put an end to mulesing immediately. –MattPosted by Matt Prescott, Assistant Director of Corporate Affairs