A breaking Peta video expose of the mohair industry in South Africa the source of more than 50 per cent of the world’s mohair has prompted several top international retailers to ban the material, and now, after receiving more than 18,000 letters from Peta supporters, Anthropologie, a brand of Philadelphia-based URBN, has announced that because of the potential for the mistreatment of animals, it won’t buy or produce mohair products as of March 2019.
Peta’s eyewitness expose, which is the first of its kind and encompasses 12 farms visited in January and February of this year, shows workers dragging goats by the horns and legs and lifting them off the floor by the tail, which could break their spines. Lambs, who were being shorn for the first time, cried out in fear. Afterward, workers threw them across the floor. Peta has asked law-enforcement agencies to investigate and file charges, as appropriate, for what the group believes are violations of South Africa’s Animals Protection Act, 1962.
Peta Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard stated that gentle baby goats were left bleeding and crying in pain and fear on the shearing floor, all for mohair sweaters and scarves.
Farmers admitted that after shearing, many goats die from exposure to the cold wind and rain 40, 000 reportedly died of exposure across South Africa in just one weekend. Unwanted goats also died in agonizing ways: On one farm, a worker slowly cut the throats of fully conscious goats with a dull knife and then broke their necks, hacking one animal’s head right off. Other goats were hauled to a slaughterhouse, where they were electrically shocked, hung upside down, and slashed across the throat.
In banning mohair, Anthropologie joins Arcadia Group Gap, Athleta, H&M Group, Inditex apparel brands, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Express, and numerous other brands and retailers.
