PETA’s gorgeous devotee has taken yet another opportunity to speak up for animals – in Australia, mate!

She headed down under for an appearance in Australia’s Big Brother (why can’t we get Pam in our Big Brother?!) and also hand-delivered a copy of her letter to Albert Baladi, managing director of KFC’s parent company in Australia, to staff at a local KFC. She gave each manager a copy of her explicit video, which reveals KFC suppliers scalding chickens to death in defeathering tanks and other atrocities.

In the letter, Pam explains:

“I’ve been in Australia filming Big Brother, in which my housemates and I are confined and sealed off from the outside world, much like the chickens who are crammed inside barns for KFC. Fortunately, I won’t be stomped to death, have my legs broken or be scalded to death in a tank of hot water—yet, as PETA’s undercover videos have revealed, the chickens raised for KFC’s restaurants in Australia often suffer these abuses.”

Pam urges Baladi to follow the lead of KFC Canada, which agreed last month to make landmark animal welfare reforms.

Read the whole of Pam’s letter.

Ok that’s a terrible pun, but it had to be done. Protestors greeted attendees of the Australian Wool Innovation’s (AWI) gala award ceremony in Paris last night, with shocking images of what happens to lambs in the Australian wool industry. Merino wool comes at a heinous price for the welfare of lambs, who have their backsides hacked about in order to prevent flystrike (mulesing). C’mon guys, it’s time to fall into place and put these mutilation practices to bed. Gardening shears and rotting flesh has never been in fashion, so why should cruelly produced wool clothing be? Adidas, HUGO BOSS and H&M have got the right idea - it’s time everyone else followed suit.

Breaking news! Stop press! Here’s a piece of news that is sure to brighten up your day, from PETA US’ Assistant Director of Corporate Affairs, Matt Prescott. Way to go Adidas!

“Adidas—the second-largest sporting-goods manufacturer in the world—has just taken steps to reduce the suffering of sheep in its supply chain.

Following nearly four months of discussions with PETA US, Adidas has now decided to boycott all wool from mulesed lambs—including those mulesed using clips.

Frank Henke, Global Director of Social and Environmental Affairs for Adidas, told PETA US: “Adidas has given a clear briefing to its development and sourcing teams to not use merino wool from sources where mulesing practices are applied. Clip-mulesing is also rejected by our internal policy. … [W]e would select another material unless we obtain clear confirmation from the source that mulesing practices were stopped.”

As some readers might know, mulesing is a standard mutilation used by Australian woolgrowers in which lambs have huge chunks of skin and flesh carved from their backsides with big, metal shears (like gardening shears). This gruesome procedure is used in a misguided attempt to protect sheep from maggot infestation, despite the fact that humane methods (e.g., in which animals’ skin isn’t removed) exist.

In an attempt to win back clothing retailers that are boycotting Australian wool over this issue, some farmers have started using clips to mules their animals. Clip mulesing involves clamping clips onto the animals’ skin so tightly that the skin dies and falls off. This method still causes pain, but is not bloody (and therefore less visually shocking), which lead the Australian wool industry to hope that it would be acceptable to clothing retailers. But Adidas—like HUGO BOSS, Perry Ellis, H&M, and many other companies—is not buying this new mutilation … which is great news, since it will help animals today and push the Australian wool industry to stop all forms of mulesing once and for all.

This decision by Adidas comes just one week after Australia’s Federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, wrote a publicized letter to Adidas thanking it for supporting Australian wool and trying to justify the mulesing mutilation to them. Bad timing, Mr. Burke.

Three cheers for Adidas for refusing to support unnecessary and cruel lamb mutilations down under!

You can help! Take a few seconds to sign our petition urging the Australian Prime Minister to help put an end to mulesing immediately.”

Following hot on the heels of other major chain stores like H&M and New Look, £1 billion store Matalan has implemented a policy against purchasing Australian wool. David Mellett, a director within Matalan, told PETA:

“[We have] instructed our suppliers that they must not source Australian merino wool for any future orders … [and] we will now include this as part of our auditing process.”

What’s all the fuss about? In Australia, a cruel process called mulesing is used, which involves crude mutilation using shears to cut huge chunks of skin and flesh from lambs’ backsides – without any pain relief – in a misguided attempt to reduce maggot infestation, even though effective and humane prevention methods exist.

In another European demo, activists and this rather forlorn looking ‘sheep’, protested against the cruelty of mulesing in Helsinki, Finland. Keep up the pressure my continental friends!

I am one happy bunny. PETA US has been working with H&M - the giant clothes retailer that adorns many a high street here in the UK (1,500 stores worldwide!) - and following discussions with them about how lambs in the Australian wool industry are mutilated during the “mulesing” procedure, the company has made the ethical decision to try and source wool from outside Australia. H&M ensure that any wool it purchases from down under doesn’t come from producers that use mulesing. This decision puts H&M in the company of others like New Look, George, Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland and leading fashion designer Marc Bouwer, who have all taken similar actions.

What is mulesing? Australian farmers breed sheep to grow extremely wrinkly skin (so they produce more wool), which can collect urine and moisture in the hot weather. Attracted to the moisture, flies lay eggs in the folds of skin, and the hatched maggots can eat the sheep alive. To prevent this, many Australian ranchers perform an operation where they force the sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs and, without painkillers, slice chunks of flesh from their backsides. This is done to encourage smooth, scarred skin that can’t harbour fly eggs, though flies are often attracted to the open wounds, making it ineffective as well as cruel.

In an email to PETA US, the head of environment and corporate social responsibility for H&M wrote: “Our new position is to start immediately to look for non-mulesed (wool) alternatives. We will look for other countries of origin than Australia, and we will investigate any certifications or other ways to prove that merino wool from Australia originates from farms that are not practicing mulesing.”

While PETA advocates an end to the use of sheep for their flesh and wool, and will continue to campaign for this, we also recognise that this announcement is a big step forward. Find out more about the PETA US campaign here.

Well done H&M! See the H&M website for more on their new stance.

H&M image: Curbed / Creative Commons