Photos: Boohoo Anti-Wool Campaign Arrives In Manchester

For Immediate Release:

18 March 2019

Contact:

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

PHOTOS: BOOHOO ANTI-WOOL CAMPAIGN ARRIVES IN MANCHESTER

Following Retailer’s Ewe-Turn, PETA Holds Protest Outside Its Head Office

Manchester ­­– Today, following boohoo group‘s decision to withdraw its ban on wool, PETA supporters gathered outside the company’s Dale Street head office wearing sheep masks and holding signs that read, “Come On, boohoo – Show Some Moral Fibre,” “boohoo, Ban Cruel Wool,” and “Sheep Kicked and Beaten for Wool”. The action is part of PETA’s campaign urging the global retailer to stand by its original decision. The group – which includes the brands boohoo, boohooMAN, PrettyLittleThing, and Nasty Gal – previously told PETA that “as of AW19/20, we will not knowingly source any wool products”.

Photos from the action are also available here, here, and here.

“It’s time boohoo group proved that it’s a real leader in global retail by standing by its compassionate initial decision to ban wool,” says PETA Director of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA’s supporters and other kind shoppers agree that no jumper or scarf is worth kicking, punching, and killing gentle sheep on the shearing floor.”

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”, and the group opposes speciesism, which is a supremacist worldview. Since 2014, PETA has released 11 exposés of 99 wool industry facilities on four continents, including in the UK, and systemic abuse was found in every one. On farms across England and Scotland, shearers were found punching sheep in the face, stamping and standing on their heads and necks, and beating them with electric clippers. Several sheep died of apparent stress during and following shearing, and one farmer was recorded dragging two ailing sheep into a shed, where he left them to suffer and die.

PETA notes that the wool industry also wreaks havoc on the environment: manure generated by farmed animals has significantly contributed to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, large-scale grazing has led to vegetation change and soil erosion, and faecal matter and sheep “dip” (a toxic chemical used to rid sheep of parasites) pollute local waterways. The “Pulse of the Fashion Industry” report ranks wool fifth on its list of materials that have the highest cradle-to-gate environmental impact per kilogram.

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

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