‘Goats’ to Protest Continued Sale of Mohair by ‘Free People’
PETA Will Push Retailer to Ditch Mohair After Investigation Revealed Workers Mutilating, Killing Goats
For Immediate Release:
October 16, 2018
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
What: On Wednesday, a group of PETA “goats” will descend on the Free People store in Center City—where the company’s headquarters is located—to call on the retailer to stop selling shawls, sweaters, and other items made from mohair. The protest comes in the wake of a horrifying PETA exposé of the mohair industry in South Africa that sparked an official investigation by law enforcement and has prompted more than 320 companies to ban the cruelly obtained fiber.
When: Wednesday, October 17, 12 noon
Where: Outside the Free People store, 1625 Walnut St. (near the intersection of S. 17th and Walnut streets), Philadelphia
“Crying goats are dragged and thrown across the floor, and their throats are cut with dull knives—all for mohair sweaters and scarves,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Free People now has the shameful distinction of being one of the only brands still selling products made from the hair of gentle goats who didn’t want to suffer and die for a sweater.”
PETA’s exposé revealed that shearers—who are paid by volume, not by the hour—worked quickly and carelessly, leaving angora goats with gaping wounds. Workers then roughly stitched the animals up without giving them any pain relief. And unwanted goats died in agonizing ways: One worker slowly cut their throats with a dull knife while they were fully conscious and then broke their necks, hacking one animal’s head entirely off. Others 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”—notes that brands that have banned mohair include Anthropologie (which is owned by the same parent company as Free People), Ralph Lauren, Diane von Furstenberg, Brooks Brothers, Gap, Banana Republic, H&M, Topshop, and Zara.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
