Hit documentaries Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy have motivated many outraged viewers to change their habits by alerting them to the horrific cruelty endured by animals killed for food. Now, it may be time for Skinspiracy.
All over the world, animals’ skin, fur, feathers, and fleece are being stolen off their backs. PETA is the only organization conducting major campaigns against the use of angora, cashmere, down, exotic skins, leather, mohair, and wool, now that fur has fallen so far out of fashion. Our investigators are shedding light on the dark side of the clothing trade.
Exposed: Leather’s Live-Export Horrors
After being shipped halfway around the globe in filthy conditions and without sufficient food or water, some cows are so weak and sick that they no longer have the strength to stand up. They’re treated as if they were inanimate cargo, not living, thinking, feeling beings—hoisted off docked ships by one leg with a crane (which can cause excruciatingly painful joint dislocations and broken legs) and dropped onto a slaughterhouse-bound truck.
This is live export, and it’s just one of the forms of abuse cows and other animals endure in the global leather trade, as investigative journalist Manfred Karremann and PETA Germany revealed. More than 1.4 billion cows, sheep, and goats—and millions of other animals—are killed for leather every year.
Panicked Sheep Punched for Wool
PETA entities have released 14 undercover investigations documenting cruelty to sheep at 117 wool-industry operations on four continents. They show that shearing can never, ever be dismissed as “only a haircut.” As shearers race against the clock, they lose their tempers over small delays and often take out their frustrations on the terrified, struggling sheep—dragging them by the legs, punching and kicking them, slamming them to the floor, and more. Shearers work so quickly that strips of skin are cut or torn off the sheep, leaving them with gaping wounds that are stitched up without pain relief.
PETA’s exposés have knocked the wool industry back on its heels and resulted in the first-ever convictions of shearers in Australia and a farmer in Scotland on cruelty-to-animals charges.
Snakes Skinned Alive
A recent PETA Asia undercover investigation revealed that workers on a snake farm in Vietnam sealed off snakes’ mouths and anuses with rubber bands and then inflated them with an air compressor, crushing their hearts and causing severe pain. Because of their slow metabolism, the pythons may still have been alive as workers tore off their skin.
After hearing from PETA, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Karl Lagerfeld, Michael Kors, and other brands have ditched exotic skins.
Goats Cut Up and Killed
PETA Asia’s undercover investigation into angora goat farms in South Africa—where most of the world’s mohair is produced—documented that workers dragged goats by their horns and legs, threw them across the floor, mutilated them, and even cut the throats of fully conscious goats.
Our first-of-its-kind exposé of the cashmere trade in Mongolia and China (which supply 90% of the world’s cashmere) revealed that the goats cry out in terror as workers pin them down and yank their hair out with sharp metal combs, causing many to sustain painful lacerations.
Following discussions with PETA, nearly all major fashion brands (more than 300!) have banned mohair. We’ve also persuaded dozens of companies to drop cashmere.
Save Their Skins
As consumers, we can help create a vegan future. Whether you’re shopping for clothes or cushions, always choose something vegan—not someone.
