‘Died in the Wool’ Ad Blitz Hits Atlantic City—and Sends Forever 21 a Message

Taxi-Top Ads Urge Consumers to Steer Clear of Cruelly Obtained Wool, Shop Vegan

For Immediate Release:
January 7, 2019

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

As part of its international campaign to persuade Forever 21 to ban wool, PETA has placed ads on 10 taxi tops operating near the retailer’s Atlantic City store that show an image from a recent PETA video exposé of a terrified, bloody lamb alongside the words “Died in the Wool. Wool Kills. Wear Vegan.” The ads will be up for four weeks.

“Gentle sheep are beaten and mutilated for wool sweaters, hats, and scarves, and Forever 21 is profiting from their suffering,” says PETA Campaign Manager Christina Sewell. “PETA’s ads encourage shoppers to show retailers that they don’t support cruelty to animals by leaving wool items on the rack and opting for chic and humane vegan clothing instead.”

Two recent PETA video exposés recorded on sheep farms in Australia—the world’s top exporter of wool and a source of wool used by Forever 21—show workers beating sheep in the face, deliberately mutilating them, and cutting the throats of fully conscious animals. A farm manager carved swaths of flesh from lambs’ hindquarters as the animals thrashed and cried, and a worker bragged, “[I] hit one [sheep] so hard I knocked it out. F**ked it under the jaw a bit too hard.” The videos are PETA’s 10^th and 11^th exposés of the global wool industry since 2014, all of which the group has shared with Forever 21—but the company has refused to act.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—has protested Forever 21’s sale of wool in numerous cities, including Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Toronto, and Portland, Oregon.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.