Fashion CEO—and El Paso Native—Urged to Cut Ties With Wool Prize
For Immediate Release:
February 13, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
The controversy surrounding the wool industry—in which cruelty to sheep has been documented in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S.—has just reached El Paso.
This morning, PETA sent a letter to Browns CEO Holli Rogers—an El Paso native and a judge for the 2020 International Woolmark Prize—urging her to cut ties with the award.
In her time at Browns, Rogers has focused on sustainability efforts—and as PETA points out, the wool industry is a major producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and is driving ecological catastrophes like the wildfires in Australia (the world’s largest exporter of wool and Woolmark’s home), which have reportedly killed around 100,000 sheep on Kangaroo Island alone.
“Every single wool garment drives an industry that’s spewing out pollutants and fueling near-apocalyptic wildfires that are burning gentle sheep to death,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging Holli Rogers and the other judges to take a stand against wool by shunning this prize and championing truly sustainable all-vegan materials.”
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.
