A ‘Step’ in the Right Direction: Genesco Says No to Cashmere

For Immediate Release:
April 27, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After learning from PETA that goats scream in pain and fear as they’re tied down and their hair is torn out in the cashmere industry, Genesco, which owns the brands Johnston & Murphy, Journeys, shuh, Little Burgundy, and others, has confirmed that it no longer uses cashmere. To celebrate, the footwear and accessories retailer will receive a box of delicious vegan chocolates from PETA.

“Genesco’s decision is a win for the countless goats who will be spared the agonizing ordeal of their hair being ripped out,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging all other holdout fashion companies to follow Genesco’s compassionate, business-savvy lead and go cashmere-free.”

A PETA Asia video investigation into the cashmere industry in China and Mongolia, which together are responsible for 90% of the world’s cashmere, revealed that terrified goats were pinned to the ground while workers ripped out their hair with sharp metal combs so violently that the animals screamed in pain and sustained bloody cuts. Goats deemed no longer profitable were killed. At a slaughterhouse in China, workers hit them over the head with a hammer in an attempt to stun them. And in Mongolia, workers dragged them by one leg onto the slaughterhouse floor before slitting their throats in full view of other goats.

There are plenty of cozy, stylish, vegan fabrics to take the place of animal-derived materials, including soy cashmere, recycled polyester, organic and sustainably farmed hemp, and bamboo as well as modal, Tencel, and viscose made from sustainably harvested wood.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.