FAQ

"Why is PETA boycotting the Australian wool industry?"

PETA launched a boycott of the Australian wool industry after a year of appeals to the Australian government yielded no result. Our goal is to pressure the wool industry and government to ban two extremely cruel practices in Australian sheep farming: mulesing and live export. PETA urges everyone to boycott Australian wool until these practices are ended. Already, retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch has signed onto PETA’s boycott by agreeing not to use Australian wool in its garments until mulesing and live export are banned, and U.K.-based retailer New Look has given assurances that it does not use wool from mutilated lambs or sheep who have been exported alive.

"Why does PETA oppose mulesing?"

Mulesing is a gruesome procedure in which farmers flip lambs onto their backs, restrain them between metal bars, and use gardening shears to cut huge chunks of flesh from their rumps without any painkillers whatsoever. Mulesing is a cheap, crude attempt to create smooth, scarred skin that is resistant to blowfly maggots which can eat sheep alive. However, the enormous, bloody wounds can attract the very flies the procedure is supposed to repel, and lambs sometimes get flystrike before they even heal from the traumatic ordeal.

Humane alternatives are available now. They include breeding for less wrinkly skin on the hindquarters (a bare breech), increased monitoring of sheep, and blowfly control. These alternatives are already in use by as many as 20 percent of Australian sheep farmers, so there is no excuse to continue to mutilate lambs even one day longer.

"Why does PETA oppose live export?"

Millions of sheep discarded by the Australian wool industry are shipped to the Middle East for slaughter every year. They are packed onto enormous, multitiered ships where severe overcrowding causes many to be trampled to death or to starve when they cannot reach food and water troughs. Treated as mere cargo, sick or injured sheep may be thrown overboard to drown or be eaten by sharks or tossed alive into shipboard grinders. Those who survive the grueling weeks- or months-long voyage in filthy, disease-ridden conditions have their throats slit without being stunned first.

Live export is completely unnecessary. Australia has the facilities and the workers to conduct its own halal slaughter and could easily ship chilled or frozen meat to the Middle East instead of live animals.

"Don’t Muslim consumers require live animals so that they can be assured they are killed in the halal manner?"

Australia has its own in-country, certified halal slaughterhouses, with all slaughter methods approved and supervised by Muslims who are licensed by the importing countries. The animals can be slaughtered in Australia, and the carcasses exported, without violating any religious custom. Islamic religious leaders in Australia have approved the electrical stunning of sheep prior to throat-cutting, making slaughter in Australia far more humane than live export.

"Are all sheep who are raised for wool killed?"

Sheep are inevitably sent to slaughter when they are no longer wanted by farmers—if they don’t die of exposure or neglect first.

"What is merino wool?"

The word “merino” refers to the merino breed of sheep, who are the most commonly raised sheep in Australia and whose wool is used to make clothing. Merino sheep are specifically bred to have wrinkly skin, desirable to farmers because, theoretically, the wrinkly skin produces more wool, but those wrinkles also trap moisture, urine, and feces, making sheep susceptible to blowfly infestation. Lately, other merino sheep, who have smoother skin, are resistant to blowfly attack, and produce ultra-fine wool, have come on the scene.

"Is it OK to buy wool that isn’t from Australia?"

It’s extremely hard to tell where a wool product originated. Most wool products, clothing especially, are routed through China (where labor is cheap and health and environmental standards are low) or Italy before being exported as a final product. This means that the wool in a garment labeled “made in China” or “made in Italy” has likely come from sheep raised in Australia, the country that produces roughly 30 percent of the world’s wool. The only way to be certain that you are avoiding wool from sheep raised in Australia is to avoid wool altogether, but avoiding merino wool is a great step in the right direction.

"What about the customs, traditions, and jobs that depend on wool?"

We do not believe that jobs will be negatively affected by an end to mulesing and live exports. As for tradition, that’s never an excuse for cruelty. This same argument was used against abolitionists in the U.S. to justify slavery. The abolition of slavery, the invention of the automobile, and the end of World War II all necessitated job retraining and restructuring. This is simply an element of all social progress—not a reason to deter it.

In Australia, a 2000 report by the Heilbron Pty. Ltd. found that the live-sheep export industry directly competes in the same Middle East market with Australian chilled or frozen sheep meat products. The Heilbron report also concludes that if the sheep and cattle exported live in 1999 and 2000 had been processed in Australia, approximately $1.5 billion would have been added to Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP), creating $250 million more in household income and around 10,500 full-time jobs.

"Isn’t wool the warmest ‘fabric’ available?"

Not only are there fabrics available that are warmer, such as polyfibers, acrylics, cotton blends, rayon, and polyester, but wool products also tend to be harder to care for, heavier, prone to shrinking, and not as durable.

"But I’m not personally abusing the sheep, so why should I boycott wool?"

You may not be holding the shears or forcing the sheep onto ships yourself, but when you purchase products made from animals, you are paying someone else to do the dirty work for you. Each of us has the opportunity to choose compassion over cruelty when we buy clothes, blankets, and other products. Most clothing stores carry a wide variety of nonwool items. Click here to find out where you can buy wonderful alternatives to wool.