Esprit and Dozens of Other Brands Ban Mohair After PETA Exposé

Companies Pledge to Stop Selling Mohair After Landmark Investigation Revealed Workers Slowly Killing, Mutilating Crying Goats

For Immediate Release:
May 18, 2018

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Norfolk, Va. –

A new PETA video exposé of the mohair industry in South Africa—the source of more than 50 percent of the world’s mohair—prompted Arcadia Group (which owns Topshop), H&M Group, Inditex’s apparel brands (including Zara), Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Athleta to ban the material. Anthropologie quickly followed suit, banning mohair after just one day of pressure from PETA supporters. Now, Esprit has just announced that it will stop selling the cruelly obtained material by mid-2019, citing its belief in the “humane treatment of animals.” A total of 70 companies worldwide have made similar pledges to ban mohair, including the following:

ascena retail group, inc., which owns Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, Justice, and other brands, with over 4,800 stores throughout North America
Bestseller Group, which owns brands including Vero Moda and Noisy May
Chico’s FAS, Inc., which owns Chico’s, White House Black Market, and Soma
Colovos
Daniel Cremieux
Destination Maternity
Express
Fat Face
Lazy Oaf
Mango
Marks & Spencer
Monsoon and its sister brand, Accessorize
New Era Cap Co.
Next
com
Primark
Reformation
rue21
Tom Tailor Group
The White Company
VENUS

“Gentle baby goats were left torn up and bloody, all for mohair sweaters and scarves,” says PETA Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard. “Compassionate companies like Esprit are acting swiftly to cut ties with this egregiously cruel industry, and PETA is calling on all other retailers still peddling mohair items to follow their leads.”

PETA’s eyewitness exposé reveals that goat kids cried out in fear as they were shorn for the first time. Shearers—who are paid by volume, not by the hour—worked quickly and carelessly, leaving the animals cut up and bleeding. Workers roughly stitched them up without giving them any pain relief. And unwanted goats died in agonizing ways: One worker slowly cut the throats of fully conscious goats with a dull knife and then broke their necks, hacking one animal’s head right off. Other goats were hauled to a slaughterhouse, where they were electrically shocked, hung upside down, and slashed across the throat.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—has asked law-enforcement agencies to investigate and file charges, as appropriate, for potential violations of South Africa’s Animals Protection Act, 1962.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.