Video: New Footage of Cashmere Cruelty Prompts PETA Action at Burberry Annual Meeting
London – Burberry has been implicated in a PETA Asia investigation into operations in Mongolia that shows goats screaming in pain and terror as their hair is violently ripped out for cashmere garments sold by the top fashion house. The investigation into a supplier to Lanificio Colombo – whose clients also include Gucci, Chanel, Dior, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Bottega Veneta, and Max Mara – reveals that workers tie goats’ legs together, violently pin the animals down, and tear out their hair with sharp metal combs, a process that can take up to an hour.
Following the release of the investigation, shareholder PETA US will call on Burberry at the company’s annual meeting in London today to end cashmere sales.
The footage showed that once adult goats are no longer considered profitable because they grow less hair, workers hit them on the head with a hammer and slit their throats, leaving them to twitch in agony for over four minutes as they bleed out. At another operation, workers also crudely castrate baby goats without painkillers. Photos are available here, and broadcast-quality footage is available here.
“These companies are profiting from the suffering of goats, and customers have no idea of the cruelty involved,” says PETA Vice President for Europe, UK and Australia Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA urges all fashion brands to stop hiding behind misleading labels and switch to luxurious, animal-friendly vegan cashmere.”
Two of the herding operations investigated supply companies that tout their Sustainable Fibre Alliance (SFA) membership to boost sales, even though the SFA guidelines don’t require annual farm audits or the provision of pain relief for castration or injuries sustained during violent restraining and combing. The guidelines even consider treating animals “humanely” prior to slaughter to be a recommendation, not a requirement.
PETA Asia’s investigators also found pieces of cashmere with skin on them. One goat was seen with a bleeding penis, and another was found dead the day after he was observed limping.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
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