Another Beauty Brand Bans Badger Hair After PETA Exposé

For Immediate Release:

14 October 2019

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

ANOTHER BEAUTY BRAND BANS BADGER HAIR AFTER PETA EXPOSÉ

Morphe Joins Chorus of Those Opposed to Violently Killing Badgers for Make-Up Brushes

London – After PETA US shared a horrifying video exposé of China’s badger-brush industry with Morphe, the beauty brand – which is known for its professional yet affordable brushes and its collaborations with influencers like James Charles and Jeffree Star – banned badger hair. In thanks, PETA US sent the company a box of delicious vegan chocolates.

PETA Asia’s investigation revealed that in order to make paint, make-up, and shaving brushes, badgers are captured using snares and other cruel methods while others are bred and confined to small wire cages on farms before being violently killed. On Chinese badger-hair farms, many animals exhibit behaviour patterns indicative of a severe psychological disorder, and on one farm, a badger was missing a leg. Abattoir workers beat crying badgers over the head with anything that they could find, including a chair leg, before slitting their throats. One animal continued to move for a full minute after his throat had been cut.

“Every badger-hair brush represents the miserable death of a sensitive animal,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “By joining PETA’s list of retailers that don’t sell badger hair, Morphe will help prevent badgers from going insane inside cramped cages and being beaten to death for make-up brushes.”

Badgers are extremely social animals who, in nature, construct elaborate underground burrow systems, some of which are centuries old and have been inhabited by many generations of the same badger clan. They are fastidious and have separate rooms for sleeping and giving birth as well as designated outside “bathroom” areas.

Procter & Gamble, the parent company of The Art of Shaving, was the first company to ban badger-hair items after seeing PETA’s video, and nearly 90 others have followed suit, including Penhaligon’s, Floris London, and Kent Brushes.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way,” and the organisation opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

#