PETA Presses Oxford English Dictionary to Fix Outdated ‘Wool’ Definition

PETA Presses Oxford English Dictionary to Fix Outdated ‘Wool’ Definition

Oxford – Ahead of the Oxford English Dictionary’s quarterly update, PETA sent a letter today (available here) to Oxford University Press urging the dictionary’s editors to modernise the definition of “wool” by including plant-powered wools that leave sheep in peace – such as linen, hemp, and bamboo, which have existed for centuries, as well as newer, cutting-edge fibres made from food waste, flowers, and fruit. 

Currently, the Oxford Dictionary narrowly defines wool as “The soft hair that covers the body of sheep and some other animals.” But as PETA points out, wool also encompasses a wide range of cosy, eco- and animal-friendly vegan options, making it easier than ever for consumers to shun cruel and environmentally destructive yarns made from the wool of tormented sheep.

“Adding plant wool to the Oxford Dictionary would recognise a simple truth: wool doesn’t need to be taken from suffering animals. It can be warm, stylish, durable, and entirely made from plants,” says PETA’s Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA urges the Oxford English Dictionary to update its definition to reflect today’s innovative, planet-friendly, plastic-free, animal-free yarns that are reshaping fashion.”

Sheep, as ruminant animals, produce large amounts of methane, a planet-warming greenhouse gas. This, along with the industry’s energy use, the land clearing undertaken to house sheep, the animals’ waste, and the use of chemicals to clean their shorn hair, has led the Made-By Environmental Benchmark for Fibres to rank sheep’s wool as a “Class E” material – the worst possible category. In contrast, hemp – a plant wool used for thousands of years to make clothing – is ranked as a “Class A” material.

PETA entities’ exposés of over 150 sheep’s wool-industry operations across four continents highlight the ethical reasons for conscious consumers to avoid sheep’s wool. Lambs endure routine mutilation, such as having their tails and testicles removed, usually without pain relief, and sheep who have been purposely bred to produce more wool than nature ever intended are kicked, beaten, and stomped on in shearing sheds.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

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

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