‘I’m a Living Being, Not a Sweater’ Ad Blitz Hits Fort Wayne—And Sends Forever 21 a Message

Bus Shelter Ads Urge Consumers to Steer Clear of Cruelly Obtained Wool, Shop Vegan

For Immediate Release:
February 26, 2019

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

As part of its international campaign to persuade Forever 21 to ban wool, PETA has placed three ads on bus shelters near the retailer’s Fort Wayne store that show an image of a lamb alongside the words “I’m a Living Being, Not a Sweater. Boycott Forever 21. #Never21.” The ads will be up for four weeks.

“Gentle sheep are beaten and mutilated for wool sweaters, hats, and scarves, and Forever 21 is profiting from their suffering,” says PETA Campaign Manager Christina Sewell. “PETA’s ads encourage shoppers to show retailers that they don’t support cruelty to animals by leaving wool items on the rack and opting for chic and humane vegan clothing instead.”

PETA and its affiliates have released 11 exposés of 99 sheep-shearing and farming operations on four continents revealing that the animals are beaten, stomped on, mutilated, and even skinned alive for wool. Because shearers are typically paid by volume, not by the hour, they’re driven to work quickly and carelessly. Strips of sheep’s skin—and even pieces of their ears—are cut or torn off during shearing, and the most gaping wounds are stitched up without any pain relief. PETA has shared all this with Forever 21—but the company has refused to act.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a supremacist view of the world. The group is also targeting Forever 21 with ads in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, New York, and in Louisville, Kentucky, running a total of 31 ads in the four cities.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.