Cashmere Industry Exposed: Goats Cry Out in Pain in Graphic New Video

PETA Asia’s Investigation Prompts H&M to Drop Cruelly Obtained Fiber

For Immediate Release:
May 13, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

A new PETA Asia video investigation conducted on cashmere farms and in slaughterhouses in China and Mongolia—the two countries responsible for 90% of the world’s cashmere production—shows workers holding down frightened goats who cry out in pain as their legs are bent and their hair is torn out with sharp metal combs.

Goats left bloody from the hair-removal process received no pain relief or veterinary care. One worker simply poured rice wine directly into a wound. In China, goats deemed no longer profitable were slaughtered after workers hit 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.

H&M—the second-largest clothing retailer in the world—has agreed to ban “conventional” cashmere (the only kind that it sells) as a result of the investigation. ASOS had previously banned cashmere following discussions with PETA U.K., and after being sent the findings of this new investigation, the company took the final step of removing all remaining cashmere stock from its website.

“Frightened goats’ hair is torn out, and then the animals are hit with hammers and hacked to death—all to make cashmere sweaters and scarves,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges all retailers to follow H&M and ASOS in dropping cashmere and asks consumers to leave cruelly produced items on the rack.”

Cashmere also has the highest environmental impact of any animal-derived fiber. Goats have voracious appetites, and because they consume the roots of plants (which prevents regrowth), fragile grasslands are turning into deserts, which contributes to dangerous pollution dense enough to reach North America.

PETA notes that warm, stylish, vegan alternatives—including bamboo, Tencel, hemp, modal, viscose, organic cotton, and soy cashmere (which is a waste byproduct of the production of soy foods)—are widely available. The group—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.