Photos: ‘Bruised’ and ‘Bloody’ Models Protest at Wool Week Opening Event

For Immediate Release:
10 October 2016

Contact:
Olivia Jordan +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

‘BRUISED’ AND ‘BLOODY’ MODELS PROTEST AT WOOL WEEK OPENING EVENT

PETA Activists Reveal Plight of Sheep Who Are Kicked, Punched, and Killed for Wool

London – Guests at Wool Week’s opening event got quite an eyeful today as three nearly nude PETA models bodypainted to look bruised, beaten, and bloody protested against the cruelty of the wool industry. One model covered her breasts with a dead “lamb” while the other two brandished placards that read, “Sheep Kicked and Beaten for Wool” and “The Naked Truth: Wool Hurts”.

Photos from the event are available here, here, and here.

“We took the message that sheep are not coats, jumpers, or scarves straight to the opening of Wool Week”, says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “When every single PETA exposé of the wool industry has revealed petrified sheep with bloody wounds and broken limbs, there’s simply no excuse to wear wool – especially when so many innovative vegan fabrics exist.”

PETA’s international affiliates – whose shared motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – have released five exposés recorded at 37 facilities on three continents, which reveal that sheep are mutilated, abused, and skinned alive – even for “responsibly sourced” wool on so-called “sustainable” farms. Shearers are often paid by volume, not by the hour, which encourages fast, violent work that leaves many sheep with gaping wounds.

Life for British sheep is no easier. Wool producers subject lambs to painful mutilations – including castration without painkillers – and it’s considered normal in the wool industry for between 2 and 3 million lambs to die each year from starvation or hypothermia as a result of exposure.

Once their bodies wear out and they are no longer considered useful for wool production, sheep are packed onto severely crowded lorries – often without adequate food, water, or ventilation – and then taken to abattoirs, where their throats are slit.

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

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