Herd of PETA ‘Animal’ Mascots to Storm Anthropologie

For Immediate Release:
February 12, 2021

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

On Valentine’s Day, a “cow,” an “alpaca,” a “sheep,” and a “goat” will lead PETA supporters as they descend on an Anthropologie store in Gainesville and “close it for cruelty.” The action is part of the group’s international campaign demanding that all Urban Outfitters, Inc., brands—which include Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters—stop selling leather, alpaca fleece, wool, cashmere, and other materials stolen from animals. The protesters will hold signs showing the faces of animals and reading, “A Wool Coat Stops a Bleating Heart.”

When:    Sunday, February 14, 1 p.m.

Where:    Anthropologie, 2850 S.W. 35th Dr., Gainesville

“Animals used by the fashion industry are the same as humans in all the ways that count: They experience heartbreak, feel pain, and want to spend time with loved ones,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Anthropologie can win over PETA’s heart—and the heart of anyone who cares about animals—this Valentine’s Day by pulling wool, leather, and other cruelly obtained materials from its shelves.”

PETA launched its campaign after Anthropologie was implicated in a first-of-its-kind PETA investigation revealing that workers mutilated alpacas during shearing. Other videos have revealed that workers hit, kick, and mutilate gentle sheep for their wool; leave sensitive goats with bloody, gaping wounds at mohair and cashmere operations; burn, electroshock, beat, and slaughter cows for leather; yank out the feathers of ducks and geese by the fistful for down; and boil silkworms alive to produce silk.

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 or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.