Breaking: PETA Supporter Storms Paul Smith Catwalk Over Mohair Cruelty

20.06.2026

Milan – Moments ago, a PETA supporter bearing a sign reading “Paul Smith: Drop Mohair!” burst onto the runway during the Paul Smith menswear show at Milan Fashion Week to urge the designer to ban mohair from his collections. The action comes after Paul Smith was implicated in a damning undercover investigation into mohair operations in South Africa and Lesotho, which documented workers violently striking, dragging, and pinning terrified goats to the ground during shearing, as the panicked animals cried out in pain and fear. Video of the runway takeover is available here.

In a one-two punch, another PETA activist gave passersby outside the show a glimpse of the suffering goats endure in the mohair industry. Dressed as a wounded goat, the activist was forcefully pinned down and roughly “sheared”—while actual sounds of terrified goats screaming, recorded as part of a PETA Asia investigation, played.

Images are available here.

“Every mohair suit or jumper Paul Smith sends down the runway represents the agony and terror of a goat who was beaten, bloodied, and left screaming in pain,” says PETA Senior Vice President Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is calling on Paul Smith to stop being complicit in the rampant abuse of goats in the mohair industry and switch to the luxurious vegan materials today’s kind consumers want.”

PETA Asia’s investigation documented workers hauling goats around by their tails and shearing the animals so roughly that some were left wounded and bleeding. One goat suffering from a large, gaping wound was shorn as he screamed in pain. The bodies of several dead goats – including a baby goat – were filmed discarded in a heap at a “responsible” mohair facility. Mother goats form strong bonds with their babies and recognise each other’s distinct bleats shortly after birth, but in the mohair industry, kids are shorn starting as early as six months old and killed well short of their natural 10-year life expectancy once deemed no longer useful.

Hundreds of top brands and retailers – including Helmut Lang, G-Star, Gap, Fred Perry, Barbour, UNIQLO, and Zara – have banned mohair. PETA is calling on Paul Smith to follow suit.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a sheep is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6249; [email protected]

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