Atlanta Designer Urged to Cut Ties With Wool Prize

For Immediate Release:
February 13, 2020

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

The controversy surrounding the wool industry—in which cruelty to sheep has been documented in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S.—has just reached Atlanta.

This morning, PETA sent a letter to Atlanta native Emily Adams Bode—whose fashion label BODE is a finalist for the 2020 International Woolmark Prize—urging her to remove her label from the running.

Bode is working toward a more sustainable future through the use of vintage fabrics—and as PETA points out, the wool industry is a major producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and is driving ecological catastrophes like the wildfires in Australia (the world’s largest exporter of wool and Woolmark’s home), which have reportedly killed around 100,000 sheep on Kangaroo Island alone.

“Every single wool garment drives an industry that’s spewing out pollutants and fueling near-apocalyptic wildfires that are burning gentle sheep to death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging Bode and the other finalists to take a stand against wool by shunning this prize and embracing truly sustainable all-vegan materials.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.