‘Your H&M Sweater Is a Horror Story’: Slasher Film–Inspired Art Exposes Cruelty of Cashmere
For Immediate Release:
October 25, 2023
Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382
Goats used for H&M’s cashmere live in a real-life horror movie: That’s the message PETA is plastering all over Brooklyn and Manhattan just in time for Halloween. Combining slasher movie–style posters with an actual photo of a terrified goat screaming in pain in the cashmere industry, the new campaign warns viewers that workers tie down terrified goats by their legs and horns and tear out their hair so violently that they sometimes pull away pieces of skin. When the goats are no longer profitable, workers hit them over the head with a hammer and cut their throats.
PETA has placed the massive message close to two haunted houses—Horrorwood Studios and Blood Manor, which are also within screaming distance of two H&M stores—and at 23 other locations throughout the two boroughs.
Top: PETA’s new campaign is inspired by slasher films. Bottom: A worker hits a goat over the head with a hammer. Photo: PETA Asia
“Scary movies and haunted houses are fun because we can hit the pause button or step outside when things get too intense, but goats in the cashmere industry can’t escape the horrors they face every day of their lives,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on H&M to drop cashmere and urges everyone to buy only cozy and luxurious vegan materials.”
PETA video exposés of cashmere operations in Mongolia revealed that a worker used a knife to cut open kid goats’ scrotums and pulled out their testicles without pain relief. At a slaughterhouse, some goats continued to move for over four agonizing minutes after their throats were slit. H&M claims that “no animals should be harmed in the making of [its] products,” yet it has refused to act after being presented with these findings. Numerous other brands—such as Timberland, The North Face, Victoria’s Secret, Genesco, Overstock, Columbia Sportswear Company, and dozens more—have already dropped cashmere.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
