Cashmere Industry Exposed: Goats Cry Out in Pain in Graphic New Video

For Immediate Release:

13 May 2019

Contact:

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

CASHMERE INDUSTRY EXPOSED: GOATS CRY OUT IN PAIN IN GRAPHIC NEW VIDEO

PETA Asia Investigation Prompts H&M to Drop Cruelly Obtained Fibre

London – A new PETA Asia video investigation conducted on cashmere farms and in abattoirs in China and Mongolia – the two countries responsible for 90% of the world’s cashmere production – shows workers holding down frightened goats, who cry out in pain as their legs are bent and their hair is torn out with sharp metal combs.

Goats left bloody from the hair-removal process received no pain relief or veterinary care – one worker simply poured rice wine directly into an animal’s wound. In China, goats deemed no longer profitable were slaughtered after workers hit them in the head with a hammer in an attempt to stun them. And in Mongolia, workers dragged them by one leg onto the abattoir floor before slitting their throats in full view of other goats. Some were seen still moving for minutes afterwards.

H&M – the second-largest clothing retailer in the world – has agreed to ban “conventional” cashmere (the only kind that it sells) as a result of the investigation. ASOS had previously banned cashmere following discussions with PETA, and after being sent the findings of this new investigation, the company took the final step of removing all remaining cashmere stock from its website.

“Frightened goats’ hair is torn out, and then the animals are hit with hammers and hacked to death – all to make cashmere jumpers and scarves,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA urges all retailers to follow H&M and ASOS in dropping cashmere and asks consumers to leave cruelly produced items on the rack.”

Cashmere also has the largest environmental impact of any animal-derived fibre. Goats have voracious appetites, and because they consume the roots of plants (which prevents regrowth), fragile grasslands are turning into deserts, which contributes to dangerous pollution dense enough to reach North America.

PETA notes that warm, stylish vegan fabrics – including bamboo, Tencel, hemp, modal, viscose, organic cotton, and soya cashmere (which is a waste by-product of the production of soya foods) – are widely available.

The group – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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