Nude Protesters Converge On Australian Embassy In Budapest As Australian Wool Boycott Resumes

Boycott Relaunched After Wool Industry Groups Fail to Come to the Negotiating Table and Improve Conditions for Sheep

For immediate release:
13 October 2005

Contact:
Juergen Faulmann +49 (0)7156 178280

Budapest — Nude PETA members – with the Australian flag painted across
their bloody bodies – will hold a lively protest at the Australian embassy
against the wool industry’s refusal to embrace a landmark agreement between
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and a prominent
group of wool producers that would have resulted in an
immediate reduction of lamb mutilations and an end to PETA’s international
boycott campaign. Flanked by giant posters of bloody sheep and signs
reading, “Australia: Stop Mutilating Lambs,” the naked PETA posse will
officially re-launch the Australian wool boycott:

Date:   Friday, October 14
Time:   12.00 noon sharp
Place:  Australian Embassy, Kiralyhago ter 8-9, Budapest 1126

This action in Budapest is one of multiple protests taking place around the
world this week to mark the resumption of PETA’s international boycott of
Australian wool after a moratorium was announced in August. The boycott
resumes after two major wool industry groups, Australian Wool Innovation
(AWI) and Wool Producers, flatly rejected a landmark agreement between PETA
and the Australian Wool Growers Association (AWGA) that would have resulted
in live export reforms and an immediate and industry-wide reduction in lamb
mutilations.

The agreement between PETA and AWGA provided a timetable for phasing out
mulesing mutilations (in which skin and flesh are sliced from lambs’
backsides with gardening shears) and would have ended exports of live sheep
to countries failing to meet Australian animal welfare standards. AWI and
others refused to do anything other than criticize the plan during the
45-day moratorium, despite the urging of major retailers – including Benetton,
Gap Inc., Liz Claiborne, Lands’ End, L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Jones Apparel
Group, Nordstrom, and Ann Taylor – which have all expressed support for the
PETA/AWGA agreement and interest in the new, more humane brand of wool
created by the agreement. The new brand will provide retailers worldwide
with wool from farmers who are part of the structured plan to end mulesing
and live exports to countries that do not meet Australian domestic animal
welfare standards.

“The wool industry has had 45 days to agree to consider the compromise
agreement, but has done little more than lip service to their claims to care
about animal welfare,”says PETA Europe’s managing director, President Ingrid
E. Newkirk. “It’s only a matter of time before AWI and Wool Producers
realize that they won’t be able to give their wool away until they agree to
stop torturing lambs and sheep.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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