Vegan Activists Protest Against Wool At London Fashion Week

Vegan activists have protested the use of wool at this month’s London Fashion Week, which ends tomorrow.

Campaigners from animal rights charity PETA attended a LFW event last week in a bid to raise awareness around ‘the suffering of sheep exploited for wool’.

Three blindfolded activists took a bloody ‘shorn lamb’ and held signs saying: “Don’t Pull the Wool Over Our Eyes” and “Wool Is as Cruel as Fur.”

Wool industry exposé

The protest follows a slew of exposés by PETA. The organization has visited 99 facilities on four continents, including facilities labeling their wool ‘responsibly sourced’ and documenting the practices. The investigations included the first ever exposé of the British wool industry.

Footage taken on British farms showed workers ‘striking terrified sheep in the face with electric clippers, slamming their heads into the floor, beating and kicking them, and throwing them off shearing trailers’.

British Wool issued a statement in response to the footage saying: “We are shocked and saddened by the behaviour of the (two) contractors filmed secretly.

“As a farmer-owned organisation, British Wool collects and sells the wool on behalf of British farmers. We are passionate and committed to continuously seeking to improve shearing skills and good practice in the UK. We would like to point out that the vast majority of the thousands of shearers in the UK operate to the highest standards of animal welfare, which is an integral part of all our shearing courses.”

Footage from PETA’s exposé

Vegan clothing

“Sheep’s wool, just like foxes’ fur, is not a ‘fabric’, and it doesn’t belong to us – it belongs to the animals who were born with it,” PETA Director, Elisa Allen, said in a statement.

“Whenever animals are viewed as nothing more than commodities to be turned into wool scarves or fur coats, abuse will always be a part of the production process.

“The only way to be sure we’re not buying into cruelty is to leave wool garments – and all other clothing made from animals – out of our wardrobes.”

Last week global fashion giant Boohoo announced it would be ditching wool as a result of PETA’s investigations.