Ralph Lauren to Face Pressure From PETA at Shareholder Meeting Over Cashmere Cruelty Exposé

For Immediate Release:
August 2, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

At Ralph Lauren’s annual meeting tomorrow, PETA—which owns stock in the company—will urge leadership to stop selling cashmere in the wake of a damning PETA Asia investigation that reveals goats screaming in pain and terror as workers tie their legs together, pin them down, and tear out their hair with sharp metal combs, sometimes leaving them with bleeding wounds. Once the goats no longer produce enough hair to be profitable, workers bash them over the head with a hammer and slit their throats. At one slaughterhouse, goats were seen moving for four agonizing minutes as they slowly bled to death.

“Every day in the cashmere industry, terrified goats are mutilated and violently slaughtered just to make a few sweaters,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Ralph Lauren to make the responsible and compassionate decision to get cashmere out of its stores.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s shareholder question follows.

I have a question on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Ralph Lauren Corporation pledges to offer timeless designs created through responsible sourcing.

Yet only weeks ago, the New York Post revealed harrowing details from PETA Asia’s latest investigation into the cashmere industry in Mongolia, where Ralph Lauren sources cashmere. The investigation included operations certified to produce so-called “responsible” cashmere. Goats screamed in terror as workers pinned them down, twisted their sensitive legs, and ripped out their hair with sharp, rake-like metal combs. The violent process left many with bleeding wounds, and an investigator even found cashmere with skin attached to it.

When goats no longer produce a profitable amount of cashmere—which can be before they reach half their natural life expectancy—they are slaughtered. At slaughterhouses, goats can be dragged to the kill floor, bashed in the head with a hammer, and slashed across the throat. At one slaughterhouse, goats continued to move for four minutes while they slowly bled to death.

Ralph Lauren believes that true luxury encompasses how a product was made. Given the abject cruelty uncovered in this investigation, when will Ralph Lauren embrace its own definition of true luxury and drop cashmere?