Sheep are gentle individuals who can recognize dozens of individuals from photographs. They can feel calmed during a stressful situation from seeing a picture of a friend. They can even remember faces for up to two years, using the same neural pathways humans do. Yet because there’s a market for their fleece and skin, they’re exploited and killed by the millions. Investigations by PETA entities have documented horrific abuse in every shearing shed that has been visited on multiple continents.

Exposing the Cruel, Deadly Wool Industry

PETA is letting the world know that wool items are products of violence. We revealed horrific abuse in 14 exposés involving 117 wool operations worldwide. Disturbing eyewitness video footage from Argentina, Australia, Chile, the U.K., and the U.S. reveals that gentle sheep are routinely beaten, punched, jabbed, kicked, thrown, stomped on, and sometimes even killed by hurried shearers who often leave sheep with bloody, gaping wounds, which they typically stitch up without painkillers. Being held down and handled is terrifying to prey animals such as sheep, and the more they panic and struggle, the more force shearers use, sometimes stomping or standing on their heads and necks.

Launching PETA’s Vegan Wool Challenge

In addition to all the durable, stylish, and warm vegan fabrics available, PETA is encouraging the development of a vegan wool material that’s visually, texturally, and functionally similar to or better than sheep’s wool. We launched the Vegan Wool Challenge—offering a $1 million award to the first person to develop a material that matches or outperforms wool and is commercially scalable. We know that more sheep can be saved with an indistinguishable vegan alternative to wool, and we hope this challenge will inspire some lifesaving creativity.

Making Compassionate Choices Easier to Find

A consumer survey on textiles and sustainability that sampled over 11,000 consumers in countries around the world revealed that people today—and particularly millennials and Gen Zers—are very aware of the ways in which the textile industry exploits and kills millions of animals and is devastating to the environment. They seek transparency and want to identify vegan products at a glance while shopping.

To make compassionate shopping easier, we recently expanded our popular “PETA-Approved Vegan” (PAV) certification program to include a special “100% Plant Wool” logo for certified brands to use. This logo is designed to highlight clothing, accessories, and home decor goods madeof natural, plant-derived alternatives to animal-derived wool. It helps consumers identify vegan wool at a glance while shopping and make purchases that align with their values.

Over 1,300 companies are PAV-certified, and more global, national, and local brands are signing on and seeking certification each year. Within that group of 1,300, we already have 30 companies in eight countries using the 100% Plant Wool logo, which is now available in four languages. This new logo will increase consumers’ awareness of vegan wool options and help them make kinder choices.

Connecting Companies With Vegan Textile Suppliers

In addition to making compassionate choices easier for consumers, we’re working to help companies that want to source vegan materials, by offering our “Guide to Vegan Suppliers and Manufacturers.” This free guide was recently updated to include more options, such as vegan leather, wool, silk, fur, and down and a variety of fibers made from items such as recycled bottles, discarded coffee grounds, various fruits, or leaves.

Every consumer who shuns wool and every company that uses vegan wool materials instead of animal-derived ones brings us one step closer to ending the abuse and slaughter of gentle sheep.