‘Beaten’ and ‘Bruised’ Falkirk Woman Cradles Shorn ‘Sheep’ in Wool Protest

For Immediate Release:

25 October 2018

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

‘BEATEN’ AND ‘BRUISED’ FALKIRK WOMAN CRADLES SHORN ‘SHEEP’ IN WOOL PROTEST

Action Comes After Video Exposé of Scottish Wool Industry Reveals Sheep Are Punched, Kicked, and Slammed to Ground

Glasgow – Today, holding a shorn “sheep”, 27-year-old Natalie White joined fellow “beaten” and “bruised” PETA supporters on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street, who held signs proclaiming, “Scottish Wool: Sheep Kicked and Beaten” and “Wool Hurts”.

Photos of White (middle) are also available here, here, here, and here.

The protest comes in the wake of a shocking PETA Asia eyewitness investigation of the Scottish wool industry, which documented that workers struck terrified sheep in the face with electric clippers, slammed their heads into the floor, beat and kicked them, and threw them off shearing trailers. The video footage highlights just some of the cruelty observed on 24 sheep farms toured by workers with a shearing contractor earlier this year.

“Sheep are gentle prey animals who are petrified of even being held down, yet they endure vicious beatings, bloody wounds, and broken limbs in the hideously cruel wool industry,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “We want to encourage passers-by to ditch wool this winter in favour of soft and cosy cruelty-free materials for which no animal had to suffer.”

PETA Asia has asked the Scottish SPCA to launch an investigation in response to the eyewitness footage and, if appropriate, file criminal charges against the workers for apparent violations of laws prohibiting cruelty to animals.

Such abuse is not limited to Scotland. In August, PETA Asia released footage showing rampant abuse of sheep on English farms. Other exposés by PETA affiliates of farms across Australia, the US, and South America have revealed that sheep are mutilated, tormented, and sometimes skinned alive – even for “responsibly sourced” wool on so-called “sustainable” farms. Once they’re no longer considered useful for wool production, they’re packed onto crowded lorries and taken to abattoirs, where their throats are slit.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – notes that shearers are often paid by volume, not by the hour, which encourages fast, violent handling that leaves gaping wounds on the animals’ bodies, which shearers stitch up using a needle and thread and without any pain relief.

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

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