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.”

Designer giant HUGO BOSS has announced that it will phase out the use of Australian wool originating from lambs who have undergone either the standard mulesing mutilation or the new “clip mulesing” mutilation. This is fantastic news, as yet another world-famous clothing company joins the international boycott of this cruelly produced wool, following in the footsteps of H&M, Matalan and more.

In 2004, the Australian wool industry sat up and started listening to what people were saying about Australia’s cruel treatment of sheep, and publicly pledged to phase out mulesing by 2010. Fast forward to now and the industry is promoting another cruel mulesing method where clips are attached to the folded skin and flesh of lambs, causing it to rot and fall off. Mmmm, sounds great – not. HUGO BOSS hasn’t been fooled either and will be phasing out all wool that could have been produced in either of these ways. In a statement the company says:

“HUGO BOSS disassociates itself from mulesing because it contravenes our corporate values … [and] has decided to phase out the use of wool from farms that perform mulesing – including clip mulesing. Should mulesing not have ended completely by 2010, HUGO BOSS will refuse to purchase wool material from farms that perform mulesing.”

As you may remember, I’ve been keeping you updated on the protests taking place across Scandinavia against mulesing. Here are the last of the pictures, which are from Denmark and Norway. Thanks to all the activists who took part over the past few weeks, you rock! Oh and I’m loving the combine-harvester look below…

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