First-Ever Alpaca Wool Exposé: Workers Tie Up, Stretch Out, and Cut Animals, Making Them Vomit

For Immediate Release:

1 June 2020

Contact:

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

FIRST-EVER ALPACA WOOL EXPOSÉ: WORKERS TIE UP, STRETCH OUT, AND CUT ANIMALS, MAKING THEM VOMIT

PETA US Undercover Investigation in Peru Shows Alpacas Bleeding and Crying Out in Pain and Fear

London – A first-of-its-kind PETA US undercover investigation of Mallkini – the world’s largest privately owned alpaca farm in Peru – reveals that workers held struggling, crying alpacas by the ears as they were roughly shorn with electric clippers, causing some to vomit out of fear. They slammed the alpacas – some of whom were pregnant – onto tables, tied them to a medieval-looking restraining device, and pulled hard, nearly wrenching their legs out of their sockets. The quick, rough shearing left the animals cut up and bleeding from deep wounds, which were sewn up without adequate pain relief.

In response, Esprit is phasing out alpaca wool and, as a first step, Gap Inc (which owns Banana Republic, Athleta, and other brands) and H&M Group (which owns eight brands) have cut ties with Mallkini’s parent company, the Michell Group, which is the leading exporter of alpaca fibre. PETA US is asking Peruvian authorities to investigate Mallkini for possible violations of the country’s animal protection laws.

“This PETA US investigation pulled back the curtain on violent shearing that leaves alpacas bleeding and crying out,” says PETA Director of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “We urge all retailers to protect these vulnerable animals by banning alpaca wool and are calling on consumers to leave cruelly produced alpaca wool items on the rack.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that in addition to causing gentle alpacas immense suffering, the production of alpaca wool is also terrible for the planet. The Higg Materials Sustainability Index ranked alpaca wool as the second most environmentally damaging material after silk, noting that it’s six times as harmful as polyester and more than four times as damaging as modal, viscose, rayon, lyocell, acrylic, and other vegan materials.

PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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