Alicia Silverstone Would Rather Go Naked Than Wear Wool
Alicia Silverstone is well known for her compassion, whether she’s promoting a healthy vegan lifestyle or exposing cruelty to animals with PETA, and now she’s taking on the cruel wool industry.
In this bold new ad, Alicia bares all to show that wool belongs on sheep, not humans, and to open people’s eyes to cruelty they may not have considered before. As she says, “Wool, in general, has not been thought about by many, many people. It’s just not something that’s really brought to their attention”.
Brian Bowen Smith
From birth, sheep in the wool industry face pain and abuse. The world’s top wool exporting countries like Australia allow shockingly painful procedures, such as mulesing, to be carried out on lambs. For instance, the tail of the animal is cut off without pain relief in an ineffective attempt to prevent flystrike.
Workers who shear sheep are often paid by volume rather than by the hour, so they work as quickly as possible with little consideration for the animals. Sheep are tossed around, roughly shorn, injured with sharp tools, and even punched and kicked by stressed workers. They are routinely denied veterinary care for wounds or injuries, and some even die from the shock of the experience.
As Alicia notes, once their wool production drops, sheep are likely to be sold for meat and can even face the horror of live-export to the abattoir: “When the sheep are no longer useful, they’re killed. So there is no happy place that they get to go for being a wool sheep”.
Animals born into the wool industry experience a whole lifetime of suffering, just so that humans can wear wooly jumpers, hats, and scarves. Next time you’re out shopping, look for one of the many cosy synthetic alternatives and leave wool clothing on the shelf.
