Le Château Ditches Cashmere After PETA Asia Investigation

Company to Receive Vegan Chocolates in Thanks for Compassionate Move

For Immediate Release:
June 24, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Le Château (which has more than 150 retail locations across Canada as well as an e-commerce platform serving Canada and the U.S.) has just removed all its remaining cashmere stock. The move comes in response to a new PETA Asia video investigation that shows workers holding down crying cashmere goats, bending their legs into unnatural positions, binding them with ropes, and tearing their hair out with sharp metal combs. In thanks, PETA is sending Le Château a box of delicious vegan chocolates.

PETA Asia’s investigation was conducted on cashmere farms and in slaughterhouses in China and Mongolia—which, together, are responsible for 90% of the world’s cashmere—and revealed that goats left with bloody cuts from the hair-removal process received no pain relief or veterinary care. One worker simply poured rice wine into an animal’s wound. In China, goats deemed no longer profitable were slaughtered after workers bludgeoned them in the head with a hammer in an attempt to stun them. And in Mongolia, workers dragged them by one leg onto the slaughterhouse floor before slitting their throat in full view of other goats. Some animals were recorded moving for minutes afterward.

“Gentle goats’ hair is torn out and the animals are hit with hammers and hacked to death, all for cashmere sweaters and scarves,” says PETA Senior Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard. “Le Château did the right thing by scrapping its remaining cashmere pieces, and PETA is urging all other retailers to follow its compassionate, business-savvy lead and go cashmere-free.”

While cashmere has the highest negative environmental impact of any animal-derived fibre, widely available vegan options—such as bamboo, Tencel, hemp, modal, viscose, organic cotton, and soy cashmere (which is a waste byproduct of the production of soy foods)—are warm, stylish, and eco-friendly.

Le Château had previously made the decision to stop selling items made from the cruelly obtained fibre but decided to remove its remaining cashmere pieces last week. H&M—the second-largest clothing retailer in the world—agreed to ban “conventional” cashmere (the only kind that it sells) as a result of the investigation, and ASOS removed all remaining cashmere stock from its website. PETA is now calling on Madewell to follow suit.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.