Las Vegas Carbon Offset Company Stops Selling Wool After PETA Appeal

For Immediate Release:
April 28, 2021

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After PETA told 8 Billion Trees that the wool industry harms sheep and contributes to the climate crisis, the carbon offset company quickly agreed to replace wool dryer balls—the only product in its catalog made of animal-derived materials. In thanks, PETA is sending the company a box of sheep-shaped vegan chocolates.

“The wool industry spews out pollutants, contributes to climate change, and terrorizes gentle sheep, so wool is a no-go for anyone who cares about the planet or animals,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “8 Billion Trees is right to stop selling items made of wool, and PETA is asking kindhearted consumers to do their part by sticking to animal-free products.”

Since 2014, PETA has released 14 exposés documenting cruelty to sheep at 117 sheep-shearing facilities on four continents. The most recent wool-industry exposé—of sheep farms in Australia, the world’s largest exporter of wool—reveals that workers stood on a sheep’s neck, punched sheep in the face, kicked them, cut swaths of skin off them, and left many with bleeding wounds.

Wool is also an ecological nightmare: Sheep are ruminant animals with digestive systems that constantly generate methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Data from the Higg Materials Sustainability Index show that because of the greenhouse-gas emissions created during its production, wool has a far greater impact on global warming than synthetic options.

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.