Three vegan models in faux-wool jumpers and blindfolds stood tall at Somerset House this morning outside Woolmark’s menswear show, as part of “London Collections: Men”, to protest the wool industry’s cruelty to sheep.
Earlier this year, PETA US released an international exposé of the wool industry in the US and Australia – the source of 90 per cent of the world’s merino wool – which revealed that workers violently punched scared sheep in the face, stamped and stood on the animals’ heads and necks and beat and jabbed them in the face with electric clippers and a hammer. Some sheep even died from the abuse, including one whose neck was twisted. The worker who killed the sheep admitted, “I get angry”.
Life for British sheep is no easier. Wool producers subject lambs to painful mutilations – including castration without any painkillers. It’s considered normal in the wool industry for at least 4 per cent of young lambs to die every spring, primarily because lameness caused by untreated scald and foot rot (painful bacterial infections) is found in about 18 per cent of British flocks. The only way to ensure that you’re not supporting cruelty is to leave wool – and all other clothing made from animals – out of your wardrobe.
Outside Men’s Fashion Week, the PETA activists wanted to show how there’s nothing “manly” about the cowardly shearers who were filmed punching sensitive sheep, slamming them into the floor, stamping on their heads and even killing them for their wool. PETA is calling on all kind people to leave wool on the rack and instead opt for technologically advanced and cruelty-free options such as rayon, woven metal and soya silk.
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| 11 Reasons to Have a Wool-Free Winter | Investigations Into the International Wool Industry | Louise Roe’s Vegan Fashion Haul |