PETA hails Indigenous Designs for banning Australian merino wool

14 Jun '05

2 min read

PETA commends fashion retailer for shunning wool from lambs mutilated on Australian farms.

After reviewing video footage showing the stunningly cruel treatment of sheep at the hands of the Australian wool industry, Santa Rosa-based clothing retailer Indigenous Designs has announced that it will no longer buy Australian merino wool. "We feel the fair treatment of the planet and all the people and animals [who] live on it to be our top priority," writes company representative Joshua Laytart.

"Indigenous Designs does not intend to knowingly sell products using Australian merino wool until mulesing and live exporting of sheep has ended."

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 effective, humane alternatives exist.

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

Indigenous Designs joins a growing list of retailers and fashion designers—including Abercrombie & Fitch, J.Crew, Timberland, and Limited Brands in the U.S. and New Look and George in the U.K.—that have joined the international boycott of Australian wool. India's Mohini Knitwares and seven top designers in India—a major importer of Australian wool—as well as Pakistan's Bonanza Garments, have also pledged not to use the cruelly obtained product.

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