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Every year, billions of animals are killed for clothing and accessories. Urban Outfitters, Inc., brands—including Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters—contribute to this violence by selling wool, cashmere, mohair, leather, down, silk, and alpaca. These materials are always stolen—and they’re always a product of extreme cruelty and fear.
Alpacas Suffer for Knitwear
A disturbing undercover PETA investigation revealed that workers on the world’s largest privately owned alpaca farm—which supplies alpaca fleece to Anthropologie and Free People—hit, kicked, tied down, and mutilated alpacas for their fleece. Pregnant alpacas were slammed onto tables, causing many of them to cry out and vomit with fear.
Sheep Are Killed in the Wool Industry
No matter the “standards” by which they were produced or where in the world they come from, all wool items are products of cruelty. Investigators from PETA entities have exposed extreme abuse at 117 wool-industry operations on four continents. Gentle sheep are beaten, stomped on, and kicked, including in the face. Once they’re no longer producing enough wool to be profitable, they’re slaughtered.
Cashmere and Mohair Come From Abused Goats
As revealed in a disturbing, first-of-its-kind PETA Asia investigation in South Africa, the world’s top mohair producer, workers on 12 farms dragged goats, picked them up by their tails, threw them, and mutilated them with knives and pliers. Most angora goats are sold for crude backyard slaughter when they’re only a few years old.
And a PETA Asia investigation into cashmere operations in China and Mongolia found goats screaming in pain and fear as workers held them down, twisted their legs, and tore out their hair with sharp metal combs. Once the goats are no longer profitable, they’re dragged to the slaughterhouse, stunned with a blow to the head from a hammer, and left to bleed out on the floor.
Leather Is Someone’s Skin
Leather is a coproduct of the meat industry, so buying leather shoes, bags, or jackets or even jeans with a little leather patch on the back funds the slaughter of social, curious, and gentle cows. PETA’s investigations in multiple countries—including at ranches supplying JBS S.A., the largest leather processor in the world—found that cows are routinely beaten and electroshocked and that calves are branded on the face.
Down Is Plucked From Live or Slaughtered Ducks and Geese
PETA investigations have exposed the suffering of imprisoned birds who are eventually killed in the down industry. Many geese are plucked alive so that their down can be torn out multiple times. The birds shriek as they’re restrained, sometimes with a human’s entire bodyweight pressing on their delicate necks.
Silkworms Suffer for Silk
Silkworms value their lives and don’t want to die. They have a central nervous system, respond to stimuli, and become startled when surprised. Yet billions of them every year are killed by being boiled or gassed alive inside their cocoons to make silk clothing.
Take Action for Compassionate Fashion
There is no reason to abuse animals for clothing. Demand that Urban Outfitters, Inc., commit to selling only animal-free fashion for all of its brands.