This Winter, ‘Wool’ You Please Choose Vegan Everything?

Sheep and Goats Own Their ‘ Sweaters’ and Coats!

Once, when PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk was on a train to Scotland, passengers were besotted by lush green meadows dotted, as if by snowflakes, with sheep and lambs. But it was raining, and the sheep had no shelter. Ingrid knew that they must be constantly wet and that in winter, they are both freezing and wet. She recalled her father telling her that, as a boy living next to a sheep farm, he heard them hacking and coughing all winter long.

The clever sheep in this photo took matters into their own hands… er, hooves, and found some respite from bad weather at a bus shelter. But most sheep exploited for their wool are seldom comfortable or happy. Their lambs are taken away, our videos show that they get kicked and cut to shreds, and some will have their necks twisted and broken – as PETA has documented in exposés of 150 wool-industry operations in seven countries – when they are flipped upside down and shorn. We’re stopping these wooly bullies – and need you to help!

Cozy Up to Cruelty-Free Knits

It’s simple to stop sheep from being abused: Just stop wearing or buying anything made from wool stolen from them, and educate everyone else. To help shoppers make the switch, PETA UK launched the first-ever Plant Wool Month in November. As they point out, from hemp and bamboo that sequester carbon to floral yarns that reduce horticultural waste and fibers that divert leftovers from the food industry, plant wool is better for animals and the environment.

Cancel the Cashmere

Goats are curious and playful, yet when PETA Asia investigated goat farms and slaughterhouses in China and Mongolia – the
two countries responsible for 90% of the world’s cashmere production – they found workers ripping out goats’ hair with
sharp, rake-like metal combs so violently that the animals screamed and sustained bloody cuts. In London, a PETA representative confronted Burberry executives at the company’s annual meeting about its use of cashmere while a supporter drew onlookers outside as she held aloft a “bloody goat’s head.”

Ingrid, who traveled to Kashmir as a child and played with the kind of goats now factory-farmed for cashmere, shocked London Fashion Week crowds when, dressed as a goat, she lay outside the show, crying out as a “worker” tore hair from her body. The video of her protest has been viewed over 34 million times.

PETA UK also sent a provocative present to Vogue’s Anna Wintour: a luxurious scarf woven from the only acceptable animal hair to use for fashion – human hair, including Ingrid’s own. Decades ago, PETA members occupied Wintour’s Vogue office in New York, took over the reception desk, and answered the phone: “I’m sorry, but we’re closed due to cruelty to animals.” But times change, and so has Vogue: In October, Condé Nast, Vogue’s parent company, announced it will no longer feature new animal fur in any of its magazines.

‘But Sheep Need to Be Sheared!’ … and Other Myths

Myth #1: The notion that sheep need to be sheared for their own good is balderdash. If humans had left them alone, sheep would produce just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes and manage just fine without humans’ “help.” But greedy humans have bred sheep, like merinos, to carry an overburden of wool so as to make more money off them.

Myth #2: Shearing is “just like a haircut.” Sure, if your barber is Sweeney Todd, but most haircuts don’t involve being punched, kicked, stomped on, and left with gaping, bloody wounds – all of which PETA entities have documented happening routinely in shearing sheds.

Myth #3: Sheep retire on the farm. No, they don’t. Although a survey commissioned by PETA and conducted by The Harris Poll found that 64% of shoppers don’t know this: that sheep in the wool industry are hauled off to slaughter when their wool production declines.