India : Fashion designers of India pledge not to use Australian wool

[Guest guest]

India : Fashion designers of India pledge not to use

Australian wool

21st April 2005

 

 

Major Indian designers Hemant Trevedi, Wendell

Rodericks, Rohit Bal, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Ashley

Rebello and Anita Dongre have submitted signed

statements to People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals (PETA) India, pledging not to use Australian

merino wool until live exports and mulesing (lamb

mutilations) end. Jatin Kochar has also informed PETA

India that he is refusing to use leather and wool

altogether, out of concern for animals.

 

PETA’s international campaign against the crude live

flaying of lambs’ rump flesh – as a cheap way to

prevent maggot infestation – and the cruel export of

live sheep aboard open-deck ships through all weather

extremes has led to protests on three continents and a

fast-growing international boycott of Australian wool.

 

Hemant Trevedi graduated from the Australian Institute

of Design in Perth. Last year, he received the

Australian Alumni High Achiever Award from IDP

Education Australia, India, and the Australian Alumni

Association, India. The Award, launched in 2003,

recognises the achievement of an Indian graduate from

any Australian education institution who has made an

outstanding contribution to Indian industry and

society.

 

India is the third-largest importer of Australian

wool. During 2002-2003, Australia supplied around 60

per cent of India’s raw wool imports and almost all of

its apparel-grade wool.

 

PETA launched the boycott late last year, and

prestigious US-based international retailer

Abercrombie & Fitch has already joined the boycott.

J.Crew, an $800 million US company, and UK-based New

Look, a $1 billion company, have announced that they

will not knowingly sell cruelly obtained Australian

wool. PETA is currently protesting another

international retailer, Benetton, which continues to

sell garments containing Australian wool.

 

Not only do Australian sheep farmers use gardening

shears to cut skin and flesh from lambs’ backsides

without painkillers, but millions of older sheep

suffer horrific conditions in the live export trade,

mired in their own waste aboard “death ships” bound

for the Middle East, where their throats are slit

while they are still conscious. Many sick and injured

sheep, treated as mere cargo, are thrown overboard to

the sharks or ground up alive in mincing machines.

Recently, the Australian government was discovered to

have hidden and underreported sheep mortality

statistics, amounting to thousands of sheep per

shipment.

 

Says Hemant Trevedi, “I am so disappointed to hear

about the cruelty inflicted on Australian sheep used

for merino wool. Until mulesing mutilations and live

exports are ended, I will ensure that Australian

merino wool is not used in my designs”.

 

 

 

GREATNESS OF NATION AND ITS MORAL PROGRESS

CAN BE JUDGED BY THE WAY ITS ANIMALS ARE TREATED- M.K GANDHI.

STOP HUMAN AND ANIMAL SUFFERING - GO VEGAN

I am only one but still I am one. I cannot do everything but still I can do

something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

Helen Keller 1880 - 1968

 

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