‘Newe Year, New Wear’ Anti-Wool Ad Now Up in Chicago

PETA Billboard Urges People to Start Off 2019 by Dropping Wool and Shopping Vegan

For Immediate Release:
January 3, 2019

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

With the start of the new year—and the resolutions that go with it—PETA is encouraging compassion in 2019 by placing a billboard in Chicago showing a sheep’s sweet face alongside the words “Newe Year. New Wear. Thank You for Not Wearing Wool.”

The ad is located at 2418 W. North Ave. (at the intersection with N. Artesian Avenue) and will be up through January 25.

“Just like us, sheep are flesh and blood, feel pain and fear, and value their lives,” says PETA Campaign Manager Christina Sewell. “PETA’s billboard encourages shoppers to start off 2019 by opting for cozy, humane, cruelty-free clothing that no sheep were shorn bloody for.”

PETA and its affiliates have released 11 exposés of 99 sheep-shearing operations on four continents revealing that the animals are beaten, stomped on, mutilated, and even skinned alive for wool. Because shearers are typically paid by volume, not by the hour, they’re driven to work quickly and carelessly. Strips of sheep’s skin—and even pieces of ears—are cut or ripped off during shearing, and the most gaping wounds are stitched up without any pain relief.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—notes that a recently released study by the Higg Materials Sustainability Index ranked alpaca wool as the most environmentally damaging material by a landslide. Leather, silk, and sheep’s wool are also among the top five offenders.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.