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

For Immediate Release:
December 7, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Following PETA’s demand that UGG stop baselessly assuring customers that the animals whose skin, down, and wool were used for its products were treated humanely—when UGG has no way to ensure that’s true—the company has removed the misleading claims from its website.

PETA pointed out that it’s standard practice in the meat industry to castrate and cut off the tails of lambs and calves without painkillers, forcibly cram animals into trucks for transport to slaughter, and slit their throats—so UGG has stopped claiming that using hides that are “food industry by-products” and from its “permitted animal hides list” means that they don’t come “from animals who have been raised or slaughtered inhumanely,” that all the materials it uses “are sourced from animals that have been raised humanely,” and that its hides are “never sourced using inhumane methods.”

UGG has also stopped claiming that its suppliers ensure that “animals are free from hunger and thirst, discomfort, pain, fear, and distress” after PETA noted that its exposés of facilities certified by the Responsible Down Standard revealed that geese were covered in gaping and bloody wounds before they were stabbed in the neck and their feet were cut off while they were still conscious.

“By removing these baseless and misleading claims, UGG has acknowledged that there’s nothing ‘humane’ about killing sheep, cows, and geese and using their skin and feathers for boots and jackets,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on UGG to give today’s kind customers what they want—luxurious vegan materials that leave animals out altogether.”

A bloodied sheep’s neck is sheared in Australia. Credit: PETA

Earlier this year, retailers Quince and Naadam similarly removed “humane” claims about cashmere after receiving cease and desist letters from PETA.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.