UGG, Teva, All Other Deckers Brands Ditch Alpaca Wool After PETA Appeal

For Immediate Release:
December 13, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

After PETA shared a first-of-its-kind exposé revealing that alpacas used for their wool are roughly shorn, cut open, and left bleeding from deep wounds, Deckers Outdoor Corporation—whose brands include UGG, Koolaburra, Sanuk, HOKA, and Teva—has committed to stop using alpaca wool by fall 2023. In thanks, PETA is sending the company a box of delicious vegan chocolates.

“Thanks to Deckers, countless alpacas won’t be pulled by the tail, yanked around, and left bloodied from shearing,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA encourages all companies to make this compassionate decision, because alpaca fleece belongs only on the animals born with it.”

PETA’s undercover investigation shows that workers slammed alpacas—some of whom were pregnant—onto tables, tied them tightly by the legs to a rack, and pulled hard, nearly wrenching their legs out of their sockets. The terrified animals spit, cried out, and vomited in fear as workers grabbed them by the ears, roughly sheared them for their wool, crudely stitched up their bloody cuts, and threw them onto the concrete floor.

The company joins Lands’ End, Williams Sonoma, UNIQLO, Esprit, Ann Taylor, LOFT, Columbia, and more than 70 other brands in banning alpaca wool—and PETA is calling on Anthropologie to follow suit.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. Photos from the investigation are available here. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.