GreaterGood Removes Baseless ‘Humane’ Claims After Cease and Desist From PETA

For Immediate Release:
April 16, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Following PETA’s demand that retailer GreaterGood stop baselessly assuring customers that the animals whose wool and silk were used for its products were treated humanely, the company has removed the misleading claims from its website.

PETA’s letter pointed out that in the wool industry, shearers are typically paid by volume—not by the hour—incentivizing them to work as quickly as possible, leaving sheep injured and bloodied in the process. Terrified alpacas struggle and scream as they’re slammed onto tables and sheared with such carelessness that many sustain deep, bloody wounds. In the silk industry, silkworms are typically boiled or gassed alive in their cocoons. In the production of “peace silk,” hundreds of caterpillars per cocoon die, often from starvation or dehydration. GreaterGood has since stopped claiming that its products are made of “humane” and “cruelty-free” wool, “[h]umanely gathered alpaca wool” wherein “no animals are harmed in the yearly shearing process,” and “cruelty-free” silk.

“The only way for GreaterGood to live up to its name is to stop selling these cruelly derived materials entirely,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is urging GreaterGood to sell only vegan products that no animal had to suffer and die for.”

Last year, retailers Quince, Naadam, and UGG similarly removed false humane claims from their marketing materials after receiving cease and desist letters from PETA.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.