Category: Fashion

Please help stop this.

I just posted something really difficult on These Glass Walls’ Facebook page. It’s a video of sheep-shearing, which most people consider to be quite harmless.

I struggled with posting it, in part because Facebook has a new background feature whereby posted video runs automatically without the need to click on it. I chose to post it anyway because I believe it’s so important for people to know about the brutal animal abuse behind wool. Yes, commercially raised sheep do need to be shorn because they’ve been bred that way — but no one needs to be shorn like this. The sheer brutality of it is breathtaking. The sheep are punched, kicked, dragged, stomped on, poked in the eyes, beaten in the head with a hammer, and more. All because they struggle when they’re shorn, which they find uncomfortable to begin with. I would imagine they struggle more when they see their flockmates — their family — being so violently abused.

What made it doubly difficult for me to see this is the fact that I just returned from three days at Farm Sanctuary, where the sheep barn is my favourite place to hang out and where I have come to know so many of these lovely animals as individuals. Sheep are such sweet, gentle, loving and kind creatures…they are protective of those weaker than they are and are highly intelligent with incredible memories, including great facial recollection, even among other sheep (or humans) they haven’t seen for years. The sheep in the undercover PETA video could be sheep I know; it could be Jeanne or Hershel or Joey or Freckles.

The video I’ve linked to here and posted on Facebook is very hard to watch, but I implore you to try — and then to reconsider how you feel about wool. It’s about as far from harmless as you can possibly get.

**Please note: if you click on the link, you will see a petition you can sign at the bottom of the page that asks Ralph Lauren & J. Crew, two leading sellers of wool in the USA, to drop wool in favour of animal-free alternatives.

The Cruel Reality of Down

Plucked-for-downThere’s a petition circulating asking outerwear manufacturers to switch from down to synthetic alternatives. I’ve posted about the horror of down numerous times on Facebook, but down just isn’t on most people’s radar. The writer of the petition states the issue so clearly that I’m simply copying it here. Please follow the link and sign the petition. This kind of activism DOES have an effect and is the best way to signal to governments and large companies that a given situation or practice is NOT okay. Thank you for taking action. You can sign the petition here.

Down feathers are sometimes cruelly and painfully plucked from live birds. But consumers and most retailers don’t know which products contain this live-plucked down.

Peta and Four Paws have obtained undercover video footage of workers pulling fistfuls of feathers from geese as the ravished birds shriek with pain. During the torture the geese are often squeezed between pluckers’ knees or sometimes have their necks sat upon. The traumatized, suffering birds are often left with gaping wounds, which many don’t survive.

But the horror doesn’t always end after this torment, because many of these tortured birds are further victimized by the foie gras market, and then some go on to be slaughtered or dumped into scalding water – also while still alive.

Most upsetting is that none of this cruelty is necessary. Imitation materials that mimic down are warmer and washable and now available, and outdoor gear company Coleman says it has already made the switch.

More important, the Biomimicry Institute is working to design a nontoxic alternative to natural down, and the outdoor gear companies could pool their resources to fund this project.

Tell The North Face, Patagonia and Rab to support non-toxic alternatives to down and stop supporting this cruelty!