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GreaterGood is the largest click-to-give site in the world. The company says that people can “shop their values” and make donations benefitting “people, pets and the planet.” However, it sells sheep’s wool, alpaca wool, and silk on its website. The production of these materials subjects animals to tremendous suffering while also damaging the planet.
Sheep and alpacas are gentle individuals who, like all animals, can feel pain, fear, and loneliness. PETA has released 14 exposés of 117 wool-industry operations that show sheep being mutilated, abused, and even skinned alive. Another PETA undercover investigation revealed workers hitting, kicking, and mutilating pregnant, crying alpacas in Peru, the world’s top alpaca wool producer. Some of the alpacas were even vomiting in fear as they were pinned down and grabbed by their ears. Even when sheep and alpacas aren’t physically harmed during shearing, the stress of being unable to escape is traumatic for these prey animals, who have deeply ingrained “fight or flight” instincts.
These cruel industries are also terrible for the environment. Sheep are second only to cows in the global production of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. And according to the Higg Materials Sustainability Index, alpaca wool is the second most environmentally damaging material! Meanwhile, raising and exploiting these animals results in serious pollution of the surrounding land, air, and water.
Silk is the fiber that silkworms weave to make cocoons. To obtain it, distributors boil or gas the worms alive inside their cocoons. In the production of “peace silk,” hundreds of caterpillars are left to starve to death for every cocoon produced. Silkworms may not look like humans, but they have central nervous systems and brains, just as we do.
After outreach from PETA’s legal team, GreaterGood removed misleading “humane” descriptions of items made of alpaca wool, silk, and sheep’s wool from its website. But only when the company eliminates its sale of these items will it fully embrace the spirit of compassion. Every animal is someone.
Urge GreaterGood to end its sale of wool and other animal-derived materials.