With its anti-fur fight gaining progress, PETA sets its sights on wool

Wool Vivienne Westwood scarf

After decades of fake-blood flinging and countless protests, 2018 was finally the year that fashion began doing away with fur in earnest, the result a combination of activism, educated consumerism and companies eager to court younger, socially-conscious shoppers without risking much in the way of their bottom line.

With that fight largely in the rearview, organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have set their sights on a new goal: Fighting against the use of wool. But fighting against the use of wool can be quite different than fighting fur.

Though farming wool does not require killing animals in the same way that farming fur does, PETA claims there is no humane way to shear sheep for wool. In its efforts to shed light on how the material is harvested, the international animal rights group has launched campaigns against retailers like Forever21 for wool sales (Forever21 did not respond to Fashionista's request for comment), asked a British village to change its name from "Wool" to "Vegan Wool" and, most recently, released 11 exposés focused on revealing how harmful the shearing process is to sheep.

"What's important to realize is this is not a case of uncovering one or two bad farms, this is systematic," says PETA associate director Ashley Byrne. "We find the same things [across sheep shearing operations.] Animals are beaten, kicked, punched and mutilated in front of each other in gruesome ways."

While there are companies that claim their materials are responsibly and ethically sourced, PETA says the entire industry is fraught with animal abuse. For example, Byrne says that part of the PETA investigation included looking at farms which supply companies including Patagonia, a brand which publicly emphasizes its use of materials that are environmentally and socially responsible.

After a 2017 investigation found that a Patagonia wool supplier inflicted harm to sheep that did not abide by the company's standards, the company suspended purchasing from those suppliers twice. By September 2018, Patagonia would not reveal its latest wool suppliers to PETA, despite promises to offer a transparent supply chain. Patagonia declined to comment for this story.

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