After PETA urged Ralph Lauren to ban mohair, the New York–based retail giant joined the more than 270 brands worldwide that have pledged not to sell the cruelly obtained material.
The ban applies to all Ralph Lauren brands, including Ralph Lauren Home, Polo Ralph Lauren, Chaps, Club Monaco, and American Living.
The move from Ralph Lauren — a global leader in lifestyle products from apparel to home furnishings that sells its merchandise in nearly 13,000 locations around the world — follows PETA’s first-of-its-kind video exposé of the mohair industry in South Africa, which is the source of more than 50 percent of the world’s mohair.
The exposé shows that shearers — who are paid by volume, not by the hour — worked quickly and carelessly, leaving angora goats with gaping wounds. Workers then roughly stitched the animals up without giving them any pain relief. And unwanted goats died in agonizing ways: One worker slowly cut their throats with a dull knife while they were fully conscious and then broke their necks, hacking one animal’s head off. Others were hauled to a slaughterhouse, where they were electrically shocked, hung upside down, and slashed across the throat.
“PETA’s exposé pulled back the curtain on the violent mohair industry, and Ralph Lauren responded by banning the cruelly produced material,” says PETA Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard. “Ralph Lauren has joined the growing list of fashion brands that recognize that today’s shoppers don’t support cruelty to animals in the fashion industry.”
PETA — whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” — has asked law-enforcement agencies in South Africa to investigate and file charges, as appropriate, for potential violations of that country’s Animals Protection Act, 1962. An investigation is underway. To thank Ralph Lauren for its kind decision, PETA is sending it a box of delicious vegan chocolates.
Other brands that have banned mohair include Diane von Furstenberg, Brooks Brothers, Gap, Banana Republic, H&M, Topshop, UNIQLO, Overstock.com, and Zara, among hundreds of others.
