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This video should mean that millions of people will think twice about ever buying wool socks and sweaters again.
A gut-churning PETA video exposé reveals that life is hell for lambs and other sheep exploited for so-called “responsibly sourced” wool on so-called “sustainable” farms. A witness found workers in Argentina hacking into fully conscious lambs, starting to skin some of them while they were still alive and kicking, and otherwise mutilating, abusing, and neglecting lambs and sheep on farms in the Ovis 21 network—Patagonia’s wool supplier.
Update: On August 17, 2015, after hearing from more than 50,000 people like you, Patagonia announced that it was dropping Ovis 21 as a supplier, but will continue to sell products made from wool.
Bound by Their Legs, Slashed Open, and Skinned While Still Alive and Kicking
Workers picked up gentle lambs and—while they were fully conscious—tied their legs together, plunged knives into their throats, and sawed through their necks. Blood poured from the wounds as they kicked with their only free leg. Workers then snapped their heads backwards, apparently trying to break their necks.
Even after all that, some of the lambs still managed to cry out and gasp.
Minutes later, some lambs were still alive and kicking when a worker drove a knife into their legs to start skinning them. Eventually, they were hacked apart. Their organs were carved out of their bodies and their severed heads dumped into a bloody tub.
All this happened in full view of other lambs. They were just feet away and cried out in what must have been terror and severe distress. Older sheep—used for their wool, then no longer wanted—were lined up, tackled, and dragged away to be shipped to slaughter.
Workers slaughtered fully conscious lambs. Some were still moving when workers started skinning them.
Ears Mutilated, Tails Cut Off, Castrated—All Without Pain Relief
As is common in the wool industry, lambs who were kept for their wool endured hideous mutilations—all without anesthetics or any pain relief.
A manager used a tool similar to pliers to cut out pieces of the lambs’ sensitive ears, which dripped with blood onto his hands. He wiped the blood off on one of the lambs.
He also put a tight ring around one lamb’s scrotum, which is extremely painful. These rings cut off the blood supply to the testicles, which are expected to shrivel and die over the course of several weeks.
Then, another worker cut off their tails. Lambs are prey animals who suffer in silence, rather than drawing attention to themselves and attracting further predation, but they struggled as much as they could while the workers restrained them. They were then unceremoniously dumped onto the ground, where they huddled together as blood dripped from their ears and the stumps of their tails.
The man just tossed their mutilated tails onto the ground.
Rapid shearing left many sheep wounded and bleeding. The witness never saw this sheep receive any veterinary care. The next day, a worker said that the sheep had died from the wound and would be eaten.
You Can Help Stop This!
No matter where wool comes from, whether it’s “responsibly sourced” or from a “sustainable” farm, it’s the needless product of a cruel business. There is simply no way to raise and kill animals for the mass market in a humane way. To protect sheep from this abuse, please, refuse to buy wool. It’s easy to check the label when you’re shopping. If it says “wool,” leave it on the shelf.
Urge Patagonia to drop all wool in favor of animal-friendly materials because there is simply no such thing as humane wool.