London Fashion Week: PETA Founder Had Hair Torn From Her to Protest Cashmere
Today, London Fashion Week crowds witnessed a shocking scene outside the New Gen space. PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk kneeled on the ground dressed as a goat while a “worker” aggressively ripped hair from her body to demonstrate what happens to these playful animals in the cashmere industry.
Newkirk is sending Vogue’s global editorial director Anna Wintour a luxurious scarf woven from the only acceptable animal hair to use for fashion—human hair that Newkirk volunteered to have shorn from her own head.
Passersby were also shocked to hear the actual goat screams played on a speaker. Their screams were recorded during PETA Asia’s undercover investigation of cashmere farms in Mongolia—one of the world’s top cashmere exporters.
Ingrid Newkirk lived in Kashmir as a child and played with the kind of goats now factory-farmed for cashmere.
Goats Scream in Pain for Cashmere
Goats are full of curiosity and personality, yet in the cashmere industry, workers mutilate and violently slaughter them so that their hair can go into sweaters and scarves.
PETA Asia’s investigation revealed workers pinning goats to the ground and quickly and carelessly shearing them or tearing out their hair with sharp, rake-like metal combs, leaving the animals with bloody, gaping wounds; and bodies of dead goats scattered on site, including kid goats who likely died from extreme cold and hunger.
Investigators also witnessed a herder using an unsterilized knife to cut open kid goats’ scrotums and pull out their testicles with his bare hands.
Goats Need Your Action
Please, never buy cashmere. Instead, choose luxurious vegan materials that leave goats to graze and play in peace.
Many companies—including The North Face, Timberland, ASOS, and Columbia Sportswear Company—banned cashmere after being presented with PETA Asia’s evidence of the cruelty behind it and the environmental consequences of using it.
Please urge apparel brand Madewell to ban it, too.
