PETA: Benetton agrees to buy only "ethical," nonmulesed wool

[Karmadillo]

Good for PETA.

http://www.savethesheep.com/f-benettonvictory.asp

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called off its international campaign against Benetton now that the multinational retailer has offered its backing to an agreement between the Australian Wool Growers Association (AWGA) and PETA, which has led to a new brand of wool from farmers who are part of a structured plan to end mulesing and live exports. In its letter to the AWGA, Benetton agreed to buy only "ethical," nonmulesed wool and urged "the entire Australian wool industry" to adopt the agreement. Benetton has more than 5,000 stores and outlets in 120 countries and 2004 sales totaling more than $2.2 billion.

The new, more humane wool brand established by the plan will be available to retailers throughout the world and is already being requested by retailers that do not want to support cruelty to animals.

Benetton has joined the ranks of more than a dozen major retailers, including Ann Taylor, Gap Inc., Nordstrom, H&M, Eddie Bauer, Jones Apparel, Lands' End, L.L. Bean, and Liz Claiborne, that support the agreement made between PETA and the AWGA, sending a clear message to Australian farmers that there's money to be made by adopting animal welfare reforms.

Please thank Benetton officials for listening to their hearts and their customers and for taking advantage of this new wool brand rather than continuing to purchase wool from farmers who mutilate lambs and ship sheep to gruesome deaths overseas:

Luciano Benetton, Chair
Benetton Group
Villa Minelli
31050 Ponzano Veneto
Treviso
Italy
39 0422 969501 (fax)
[e-mail]

Check out PETA's guide to letter-writing.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. Careful now, this may blow some people's minds.

[Karmadillo]

2. Kick for the sheep

nt

[Karmadillo]

3. One last kick

nt

[incapsulated]

4. Wow. Good News.

And about animals, too.

Thanks.

[Greybnk48]

5. ATTN: fellow Knitters!

PETA has a list of animal friendly yarns and yarn co.s on it's site.

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. No, PETA's never effective

All they do is piss people off.

Like those darkies sitting at those lunch counters! How could they expect southern Jim Crow believers to listen to them when they insult their very culture? ;-)

[flvegan]

8. Huh?

[LittleClarkie]

10. Only when they bogart someone else's publicity

I was afraid, when I heard reports of the muddying of the message down in Crawford, that this was about to happen to Cindy. But it came out alright.

[flvegan]

15. So, they didn't really "bogart" anyone's publicity, then?

Wearing a PETA shirt and helping a lib cause isn't always a bogart, you know.

[LittleClarkie]

17. Anyone's? Always

I qualified my answer, "only if".

If there wasn't a problem down in Cindy's protest, that doesn't mean it's never happened to "anyone".

And from what I understand from the Inaugaral parade, wearing a PETA shirt would have been welcome, as the fur protesters were quite nekkid.

Protests tend to get muddied, from what I hear, and with that muddiness goes the message.

[flvegan]

20. Actually, your quantifier was

that they are never effective UNLESS they bogart someone else's publicity. Not "only if" but "only when"...so...

who's publicity, exactly, did PETA bogart in this campaign? Or maybe they were effective on their own...for a good cause...

[flvegan]

7. Well done, PETA!

I'd also like to thank them for their ad on the DU "Latest" page. Way to go for the animals, and way to go supporting liberal sites.

[madeline_con]

9. What the h#ll is " mulesing" and does it traumatize sheep?

PETA's a bit off their rocker, IMO.

[Greybnk48]

11. it's hacking chunks of flesh folds off of young sheep

without anesthetic. Go to their web page.

[madeline_con]

12. I went to the page, and the info was vague, as if

everyone already knew what the word meant.

It seems to me, blood on the wool would be a concern. (?)

[flvegan]

13. Yeah, okay. Seems to me

causing animal suffering would be a concern. The blood is likely removed or covered during cleaning and any dye/coloring process.

[yewberry]

14. You really want to know?

I understand that the site is not unbiased, but it's the only non-technical (industry-specific) explanation I found.

Warning: graphic photo at link!!

http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/mulesing/mules.shtml

[Igel]

16. How big are the chunks?

I've known people to grow sheep and helped them shear them (long ago, different life), and little bits always came off. But I'd call them 'nicks', usually not more than a 1/8-1/4 inch deep, and very little tissue actually removed. Not chunks.

They didn't bleed, blood got on the wool only where it was pressed into the gash.

Nothing at all like when they butched one that fall, it goes without saying.

[justiceischeap]

18. They cut two very large flaps from the buttocks

They are huge, I suggest you visit http://www.savethesheep.com and look around. Click on the video link.
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=save_the_sheep

[yewberry]

19. It doesn't happen during shearing.

It's a seperate procedure to remove skin around genitals and anus.

[friesianrider]

21. Excellent!

And I hope everyone notices PeTA has sponsored an ad on DU ;)

[JackieO]

22. Good job, PETA!

It's slow, but it's progress.

[livinginphotographs]

23. Good for PETA.

:thumbsup:

[shockra]

24. That's great news!

And PETA is taking a risk here that I hope pays off.

http://www.savethesheep.com/f-moratorium.asp

Activists around the world have been campaigning against the Australian wool industry for the past year to end two cruel practices, mulesing mutilations of lambs and live sheep exports. After hundreds of international demonstrations and other actions, PETA and Australian wool farmers represented by the Australian Wool Growers Association (AWGA) have come to an agreement that would phase out mulesing through a series of quantifiable steps, starting now and securing a total end to the practice by the end of 2009, and require that live export standards meet Australian domestic animal protection laws, with the provision that if, by September 2006, it is shown that the industry can’t meet these standards, sheep farmers who have signed on to this agreement will, within the next five years, stop shipping sheep overseas.

As part of this step forward, PETA has called for a 45-day moratorium on the Australian wool and Benetton campaigns to allow AWGA representatives to garner support for this agreement from other wool industry bodies.

Talks between PETA and the AWGA began in New York in June with an in-person meeting between negotiators for the groups. The agreement represents a compromise for all involved in order to allow progress to take place toward the goal of advancing the welfare of sheep. Both sides agree that it is critical that the entire wool industry and government join these productive negotiations, and PETA has therefore suspended its campaign for 45 days beginning August 8, 2005, and will extend it another 45 days if other wool industry groups that have so far refused to talk to PETA decide to consider the plan.

If ratified by all, PETA has agreed that it would not campaign against Australian wool for 10 years from the date that the agreement is ratified by the industry. For its part, the AWGA would start an audited system to reduce live exports and mulesing of sheep, push forward a pre-mulesing analgesic, see that an already-approved post-mulesing painkiller is used, and support having representatives from the animal welfare community examine live-export conditions. Third parties would audit the progress of the plan.