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!

It seems that not only H&M are wising up to the cruelty of mulesing, a procedure used in Australia on lambs destined for wool. Sixteen other Swedish retailers are boycotting wool from mulesed sheep, joining other international clothing chains like American Eagle Outfitters, Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland and more.

Today in a protest outside the Australian Embassy in Sweden, PETA and Animal Rights Sweden activists dressed up as a ‘farmer’, and a ‘lamb’ with a bloody rump, mimicking the nasty practice. These wonderful people braved the wind, rain and even snow to tell the public and media all about what goes on in Australia. Thanks to Stella and Linnéa for playing dress-up!

The protest and our campaign are intended to urge wool producers to eliminate this bloody practice, which causes millions of lambs to suffer - just for a woolly jumper. According to our bods here:

“Farmers use shears to cut chunks of skin and flesh from lambs’ backsides - without any painkillers - in a crude attempt to reduce maggot infestation, even though humane control methods exist. Countless forward-thinking farmers have already implemented practices such as regular crutching and jetting, the use of flytraps and good animal husbandry - all of which effectively prevent flystrike.”

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