Lacoste Bans Mohair Following PETA Exposé

For Immediate Release:

10 December 2018

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

LACOSTE BANS MOHAIR FOLLOWING PETA EXPOSÉ

Iconic Brand Joins Long List of Companies That Have Banned Mohair Following Revelations of Goats Mutilated and Killed in Shearing Sheds

London – After hearing from PETA France about the suffering involved in producing mohair, Lacoste told the animal rights group that it will no longer use this cruelly obtained material, stating that it is “very concerned about animal welfare”. In pledging to implement a ban, the iconic French fashion label joins more than 330 other brands worldwide that have already committed to doing so, including, most recently, Fast Retailing – one of the largest global apparel retailers, whose brands include UNIQLO and GU.

Famous for its crocodile logo and boasting 1,200 shops and 10,600 outlets spread across 120 countries, Lacoste made this decision after seeing PETA Asia’s first-of-its-kind eyewitness investigation of the mohair industry in South Africa, the source of more than 50 per cent of the world’s mohair.

The footage shows that shearers – who are paid by volume, not by the hour – dragged goats by the horns and legs, lifted them off the floor by the tail, and worked so quickly and carelessly that they were left with gaping, bloody wounds. Workers then roughly stitched the animals up without any pain relief. Unwanted goats died in agonising ways: one worker slowly cut their throats with a dull knife while they were fully conscious and then broke their necks, hacking one animal’s head right off. Others were taken to an abattoir, where they were electrically shocked, hung upside down, and slashed across the throat.

“PETA’s exposé has pulled back the curtain on the violent mohair industry, and Lacoste has made the commendable decision to implement a total ban on the material,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “In doing so, the company joins the ever-growing list of fashion brands that have realised that cruelty to animals is not in fashion.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that animals are not ours to wear – notes Lacoste had also previously committed to a fur ban and, following contact from PETA France, to an angora ban.

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

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