Anthropologie to Be ‘Closed for Cruelty’ by PETA in Birmingham
For Immediate Release:
November 26, 2020
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
On Black Friday—the busiest shopping day of the year—a “cow,” an “alpaca,” a “sheep,” and a “goat” will lead PETA supporters as they descend on an Anthropologie store and block the entrance. The action is part of the group’s new international campaign demanding that all Urban Outfitters, Inc., brands—which include Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters—stop selling leather, alpaca fleece, wool, mohair, and anything else cruelly and violently obtained from animals. The protesters will hold signs showing the terrified faces of exploited animals and reading, “The Face of Fashion Is Fear.”
“Behind every alpaca fleece sweater or leather purse on Anthropologie’s shelves was a gentle animal who felt pain and fear and didn’t want to suffer for fashion,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on the retailer to stop selling materials stolen from animals and stock only stylish vegan designs like those it already offers.”
PETA launched its campaign after Anthropologie was implicated in a first-of-its-kind PETA investigation revealing that workers mutilated alpacas during shearing. Other videos have revealed that workers hit, kick, and mutilate gentle sheep for their wool; leave sensitive goats with bloody, gaping wounds at mohair and cashmere operations; burn, electroshock, beat, and slaughter cows for leather; yank out the feathers of ducks and geese by the fistful for down; and boil silkworms alive to produce silk.
Where: Anthropologie, 214 W. Maple Rd., Birmingham
When: Friday, November 27, 12 noon
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 or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
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