PETA’s Sheep Show Surprise in Bendigo
Visitors to the world’s largest sheep and wool show, held in Bendigo this weekend, will be forced to confront the cruel reality of wool production, thanks to bicycle billboards commissioned by PETA.
The mobile billboards, which will circle the host city from Friday to Sunday, ask viewers to visit WoolFacts.com for “the truth the industry won’t tell you”.
The annual Australian Sheep and Wool Show ostensibly “celebrates” sheep, but consumers have the right to know that the animals aren’t celebrated in the wool industry – they’re abused. From painfully mulesing lambs to savagely beating sheep in shearing sheds and sending them to slaughter when their production declines, there are many facts about wool that make it uncomfortable to wear.
WoolFacts.com is a new website designed to help consumers and designers develop a deeper understanding of the wool industry’s impact on animals and the land it exploits.
Bike billboards promoting PETA’s new website all about wool circle the Wool and Sheep Show in Bendigo.
Shearing Cruelty Continues
Just last week, PETA released new eyewitness video footage filmed earlier this year inside a shearing shed in Victoria. The video shows a badly bleeding sheep – injured during shearing – being held between the knees of a shearer, who crudely stitches up her gaping wound without administering any pain relief. The shearer then mops up the animal’s blood with her own fleece.
And this isn’t the first time cruelty has been documented in the wool industry. PETA entity investigators have visited more than 100 wool industry operations around the world and documented cruelty at every single location. Shearers have been caught on camera punching sheep in the face, jabbing them in the head with sharp metal clippers, cutting large swaths of their skin, and crudely stitching them up by pushing huge needles through their bleeding skin.
In response to seeing this latest footage, three activists held a demonstration in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall, nearly naked in the middle of winter. The activists, including model and influencer Stefania Ferrario and high-profile campaigner Tash Peterson, held a “bloody lamb” and signs reading, “Wool Is as Cruel as Fur” and “Wool Hurts”.
Jack Higgs
Just as fur has gone the way of the clog and animal-derived leather is losing a battle to alternatives made from mushrooms, pineapple leaves, and cacti, the future of wool is plant-based.
Once people know better, they can do better. That’s why we’re asking everyone to visit WoolFacts.com and find out more about the industry for themselves.
