‘If You Knew…’: PETA Appeal Shows Nashville Shoppers the Suffering Behind Wool

For Immediate Release:
February 26, 2026

Contact:
Andrew Grant 202-483-7382

Would you wear wool if you knew that sheep are routinely punched, kicked, and cut to shreds in the wool industry—or wool you choose compassion instead? That’s the question PETA is posing to Nashville shoppers in a new sky-high message near The Mall at Green Hills, home to wool-peddling brands including J. Crew, Free People, Aritzia, and Urban Outfitters. The appeal—which shows a sheep with a broken leg collapsed on the floor of a shearing shed—aims to remind consumers about the cruelty inherent in the wool industry.

“Our investigative videos show that behind every wool sweater and scarf is a scared sheep whose body was likely left bloody after shearers got through with them, and who ended up on a slaughterhouse floor,” says PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is urging kind shoppers to opt for vegan apparel that no living, feeling being was harmed for.”

PETA entities’ exposés of more than 150 wool-industry operations on four continents have exposed extreme and rampant abuse of sheep—highly social animals who form strong bonds with one another, grow depressed if isolated from their flock, and communicate their emotions through facial expressions, just like humans. A PETA Asia-Pacific investigation into ZQ-certified farms—which claims to be the “world’s leading ethical wool brand”—revealed that shearers kicked, beat, and stomped on sheep and that several sheep were left with gaping wounds that were stitched up without painkillers. Once their wool production slows, they’re sent to slaughter.

A recent survey of over 2,000 U.S. adults commissioned by PETA and conducted by The Harris Poll found that 73% would likely reconsider purchasing wool if they learned sheep are mistreated even on so-called “ethical” or “responsible” farms. PETA’s anti-wool campaign is proving so effective that several non-graphic appeals were recently removed from four malls in New York after management complained they were “de-influencing shoppers from spending money with their tenants.”

PETA’s billboard is located near the intersection of Hillsboro Pike and Glen Echo Road, just across the street from The Mall at Green Hills.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.