PETA to insist Nordstrom stop using Australian wool

24 May '05

2 min read

A PETA representative attending the annual meeting of upscale retailer Nordstrom on Tuesday will make a statement urging company officials to stop using Australian wool until the industry ends two particularly cruel practices—mutilating the backsides of lambs without painkillers in a procedure called "mulesing" and transporting live sheep on "death ships" to the Middle East.

PETA is a shareholder in the company, which operates more than 95 Nordstrom stores and 50 outlet stores in the U.S. and about 35 boutiques in Europe, as well as selling goods online and through catalogs, with projected 2005 sales of more than $7 billion:

Mulesing is a painful mutilation in which Australian farmers use gardening shears to slice chunks of skin and flesh from lambs' backsides—without any painkillers—in a crude attempt to reduce maggot infestation, even though humane control methods exist.

Every year, millions of Australian sheep are shipped to the Middle East through all weather extremes, mired in their own waste aboard open-decked ships. Many sick and injured sheep are thrown overboard or ground up alive in mincing machines. When the survivors reach the Middle East, their throats are slit while they are still conscious.

PETA's international boycott of Australian wool has already won the positive response of prestigious retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, J.Crew, Timberland, Limited Brands and U.K.-based mega-chains New Look and George.

"Byconcontinuing to use Australian wool, Nordstrom is contributing to the mutilation of lambs and the agonizing deaths of sheep," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "We're asking the company to follow the lead of other retailers and add some compassion to its balance sheets."

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