UNIQLO Bans Alpaca Wool After PETA Appeal

Company’s Decision Follows Undercover Investigation Showing Animals Bleeding and Crying Out

For Immediate Release:
July 14, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After viewing a first-of-its-kind PETA exposé revealing that crying alpacas were roughly shorn, cut open, and left bleeding from deep wounds, Japan-based fashion giant UNIQLO has banned alpaca wool.

PETA’s investigation of the world’s largest privately owned alpaca farm in Peru, Mallkini, shows that workers slammed alpacas—some of whom were pregnant—onto tables, tied them to a stretching device, and pulled hard, nearly wrenching their legs out of their sockets. Terrified of being pinned down, the animals spit, cried out, and vomited as workers grabbed them by the ears, roughly sheared their hair, crudely stitched up wounds, and then threw them to the concrete floor.

“UNIQLO’s decision will go a long way in helping to prevent vulnerable alpacas from being abused and shorn bloody for their wool,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Kind consumers can do their part to reject this cruelty by opting for vegan clothing, which no animal had to suffer for.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—notes that in addition to causing gentle alpacas immense suffering, the production of alpaca wool is terrible for the planet. The Higg Materials Sustainability Index ranks alpaca wool as the second most environmentally damaging material after silk, noting that it’s six times as harmful as polyester and more than four times as damaging as modal, viscose, rayon, lyocell, acrylic, and other vegan materials.

UNIQLO joins Overstock, Marks & Spencer, Maison Numen, Smith & Caughey’s, and Esprit in banning alpaca fiber. Gap Inc. (which owns Banana Republic, Athleta, and other brands) and H&M Group (which owns eight brands) have cut ties with Mallkini’s parent company, the Michell Group, as a first step. UNIQLO previously banned mohair after talks with PETA.

Photos from the investigation are available here, and broadcast-quality footage is available here. PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.