‘Wear Something Vegan’ Anti-Wool Ad Now Up in Salt Lake City
PETA Billboard Urges People to Steer Clear of Cruelly Obtained Wool Items, Shop Vegan
For Immediate Release:
November 16, 2018
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
As part of its campaign to inspire consumers to shop vegan—and because a PETA eyewitness investigation revealed sheep suffering at a Utah sheep shearing operation—PETA has placed a billboard in Salt Lake City showing a sheep’s sweet face alongside the words “We’re Individuals. We’re Not Sweaters. Wear Something Vegan.” The ad is located near City Creek Center, which is home to several retailers—including Express and Forever 21—that PETA is calling on to ban wool.
The ad is located off I-15 S., just before the I-80 W./Reno/Salt Lake City International Airport exit, and will be up through December 12.
“Just like us, sheep are made of flesh and blood, feel pain and fear, and value their lives,” says PETA Campaign Manager Christina Sewell. “PETA’s billboard encourages shoppers to opt for cozy and humane cruelty-free clothing that no sheep had to be shorn bloody for.”
PETA and its affiliates have now released nine exposés of 96 sheep operations on four continents revealing that the animals are beaten, stomped on, mutilated, and even skinned alive for wool. Because shearers are typically paid by volume, not by the hour, they’re driven to work quickly and carelessly. Strips of sheep’s skin—and even pieces of ears—are cut or ripped off during shearing, and the most gaping wounds are stitched up with a needle and thread and no pain relief. In addition to Utah, PETA has documented abuse and neglect of sheep at sheep operations in Wyoming—the country’s second-leading wool producer—as well as Nebraska and Colorado.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—notes that a recently released study by the Higg Materials Sustainability Index ranked alpaca wool as the most environmentally damaging material by a landslide. Leather, silk, and sheep’s wool are also among the top five offenders.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
