‘Gorgeous Goat’ Pleads for a Cashmere-Free Christmas Outside Burberry, Clashes with Security
12 December 2024
‘Gorgeous Goat’ Pleads for a Cashmere-Free Christmas Outside Burberry, Clashes with Security
Muswell Hill Local Josie Knowles was Front and Centre in PETA’s Festive Action
London – Today, Christmas shoppers visiting Regent Street got an eyeful when Muswell Hill local Josie Knowles, 24, dressed as a gorgeous PETA “goat” – complete with horns, a gold dress and make-up – stood holding a sign depicting a goat tortured and screaming as their hair was ripped out for cashmere, urging everyone outside the Burberry store to show “Goodwill to Goats” by leaving them in peace and never buying clothes made from animals. The action continued despite an aggressive response from security.
Photos are available here. Please credit @calvinjaytee. Footage is available here.
“There’s no comfort or joy for goats in the cashmere industry, where workers tie down the terrified animals and violently rip their hair out using sharp metal combs just to make jumpers and scarves,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Manager Kate Werner. “PETA encourages everyone to deck their halls and their wardrobes with cosy and luxurious vegan fabrics and keep cruel cashmere off of Christmas shopping lists.”
Mother goats form strong bonds with their young, and both mother and baby recognise each other’s distinct calls – or “bleats” – shortly after birth. PETA Asia investigations into cashmere operations in China and Mongolia – including one supplier with ties to Burberry – revealed that goats screamed in pain and fear as workers pinned them down, twisted their legs, and ripped out their hair with sharp, rake-like metal combs, sometimes tearing off pieces of their skin and leaving them with bleeding wounds. Goats deemed no longer profitable were sent to slaughterhouses, where workers dragged them onto the filthy kill floor, bashed them over the head with hammers, and slit their throats in full view of other goats before leaving them to slowly bleed out.
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 PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Lucy Watson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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