Posted on 12/23/2004 11:08:10 AM PST by neverdem
PETA Ups Boycott Pressure on Clothing Retailers Over Australian Wool
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
December 23, 2004
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Animal "rights" group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has ratcheted up its campaign against Australian sheep faming practices, with graphic billboards and threats of secondary boycotts against clothing retailers that resist its demands to stop using Australian wool.
PETA's latest billboard, erected this week at a busy thoroughfare in Manhattan, shows a lamb's mutilated backside and the words: "Did your sweater cause a bloody butt? Boycott Australian wool."
Campaign co-ordinator Matt Rice said the New York billboard and others to go up around the country and abroad would be seen by more than 90,000 people a day.
Having picked up support from U.S. retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, which under threat of boycott agreed not to use Australian wool in its clothes, PETA is now targeting Italian clothing chain Benetton.
It also suggests that it has won the backing of two other large retailers, although that is in dispute.
PETA wants Australian farmers to stop "mulesing" - the surgical removal of a strip of skin around a young sheep's backside to prevent wool growth.
Mulesing reduces the risk of flesh-eating maggots later attacking the sheep, causing what farmers and veterinarians say is much greater pain in the long run, and even death.
PETA is also demanding that Australia stop exporting live sheep, a practice that caters for the Muslim world where sheep are slaughtered locally according to Islamic ritual.
PETA says on its "save the sheep" campaign website that it "has already won the positive response" of major retailers J. Crew and the London-based firm, New Look.
It said the two retailers "have now given an assurance that they do not knowingly purchase Australian wool from producers who practice mulesing and ship older sheep overseas."
But Peter Corish, chairman of the Australian Sheep and Wool Industry Taskforce, accused PETA of "mislead[ing] the public by wrongly suggesting overseas retailers are joining its campaign."
Corish said PETA was suggesting that retailers like J.Crew and New Look had "sided with its agenda" but that was untrue.
A J.Crew spokesman had told the Australian taskforce that the company "is not taking a public position on the wool issue" while New Look "has informed us the company has not joined PETA's attempted boycott," Corish said.
He said the Australian wool industry had been in discussions with retailers all over the world.
"Typically they are saying that their buying of wool is based on long-term planning, not knee-jerk decisions and they do not give in to threats."
"Retailers generally view these issues on the basis of what is good for customers and what is good business ethics. It is not good ethics to cave into an extremist group that uses threats to achieve its outcomes."
Benetton has so far resisted PETA's tactics, despite protests this month outside its flagship stores in New York and Milan. Another protest was planned Thursday outside an outlet in Troy, Michigan.
PETA is calling on its supporters to leaflet Benetton, protest outside its stores, and boycott its products.
"Give Benetton officials the incentive to stop abusing sheep by refusing to shop in their stores until they stop using Australian wool," it says on a website dedicated to the anti-Benetton campaign.
Benetton called PETA's "unjustified and defamatory."
In a recent press release, the Italian firm complained that PETA was using the "prominence of the Benetton brand, associating it ... to crude images that have nothing whatsoever to do with the Group's activities of clothing manufacturing and distribution."
Australia's wool industry has been carrying out scientific research into effective non-surgical alternatives to mulesing, and says it is committed to phasing out the practice as it's currently done by 2010.
But it argues that PETA's demand for an immediate halt is unrealistic.
"The fact is that without mulesing up to three million sheep would die in agony in a bad flystrike year," Corish said.
"Mulesing is a highly-effective management practice in protecting merino sheep throughout their lifetime against flystrike by the unique and aggressive Australian blowfly."
Like its opponent, the Australian wool taskforce is also using the Internet to promote its cause.
See earlier story:
PETA Targets Australian Wool Industry (Nov. 29, 2004)
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Supposedly the shot makes the hair fall off and the netting catches it. No more shearing, it just falls off. Then later they collect the sheep and remove the netting stuff with the wool.
It was supposed to cut down on the labor involved, but I also saw footage of people shearing them the old fashioned way and they weren’t exactly fooling around.
So, let me get this right... its now abuse to cut an animals hair? Man some folks just need a life.
--sounds like it works even better than docking their tail--
Thisis almost as stupid as when PETA went on a rampage against milking cows.
PETA: People for Eating Tasty Activists.
President : Idi Amin
Vice Pres: Hannibal Lecter
Board of Directors: Jeffrey Dahmer, Armin Meiwes, Issei Sagawa.
Me either! There I was, minding my own business, wondering where my cozy room went, and SNIP!
wool? yarn? hmmmm does Wal-Mart sell Austrailian wool? I'm sure I could find a use for some. I'll have to search some labels to find the 'right' wool to buy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.