Notonthehighstreet Joins PETA List of Companies Banning Mohair Sale

For Immediate Release:

1 November 2018

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

First-Ever Eyewitness Investigation of Mohair Industry Shows Workers Slowly Killing and Mutilating Crying Goats

London – A recent PETA video exposé of the mohair industry in South Africa – the source of more than 50 per cent of the world’s mohair – has prompted dozens of top international retailers to ban the cruelly obtained material, and online marketplace Notonthehighstreet has just confirmed that it will join them.

The hugely successful website – home to more than 5,000 creative small businesses in the UK – told PETA that the company has informed these partners that it “will be implementing a ban on the sale of products containing mohair through our platform. This will come into effect from the end of 2019.”

PETA’s exposé, which is the first of its kind and encompasses 12 farms visited by a PETA Asia eyewitness in January and February of this year, shows workers dragging goats by the horns and legs and lifting them off the floor by the tail, which could break their spines. Goat kids who were being shorn for the first time cried out in fear. Afterwards, workers threw them across the floor. In August, the National Council of SPCAs filed cruelty-to-animals charges against four angora goat farmers based on evidence from PETA Asia’s investigation. South Africa’s national police force is investigating the farmers as well as shearers and other farmworkers.

“Notonthehighstreet recognises that no throw or pair of gloves is worth the blood, fear, and cries of gentle baby goats – and all other retailers should, too,” says PETA Director of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA reminds consumers that when shopping online, they should always check products’ material composition carefully to avoid adding any item containing mohair to their shopping baskets.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that many goats’ sensitive ears were mutilated with tattoo pliers, which left them screaming in pain. Shearers – who are paid by volume, not by the hour – worked quickly and carelessly, leaving goats cut up and bleeding. Workers roughly stitched them up without giving them any pain relief.

Farmers admitted that after shearing, many goats die from exposure to the cold wind and rain – 40,000 reportedly died from exposure across South Africa in just one weekend. Unwanted goats also died in agonising ways: on one farm, a worker slowly cut the throats of fully conscious goats with a dull knife and then broke their necks, hacking one animal’s head right off. Others were hauled to an abattoir, where they were electrically shocked, hung upside down, and slashed across the throat.

Notonthehighstreet is one of numerous companies and brands – including ASOS, Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, and H&M – that have agreed to end the use of mohair in their products.

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

#