Crushing Blow to Australian Wool Industry: AWI Drops Lawsuit; PETA's Call for Boycott of Australian Wool Continues

For Immediate Release:
June 29, 2007

Sydney -- A lawsuit filed more than two years ago by trade group Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) against PETA--over the animal protection organization's global boycott of cruelly produced wool--has been abandoned, and PETA's campaign against the mutilation and mistreatment of sheep continues full steam ahead.

"Our message is that when animal abusers sue PETA, it's at their own peril," announced PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk, one of the defendants in the failed lawsuit. "AWI has wasted millions of dollars of woolgrowers' money, only to find that PETA's call for a boycott of Australian wool is going full-throttle as long as lambs have chunks of their rumps cut off with shears and sheep are herded onto export death ships."

PETA began its campaign against Australian wool in 2004 in an effort to put an end to two abuses of sheep raised for wool: mulesing (the mutilation of lambs' hind quarters) and live exports to the Middle East (many sheep die en route in squalid conditions on the weeks-long journeys, and most who survive are abused in ways that would be illegal in Australia, as PETA has repeatedly documented).

Lawyer Fraser Shepherd of Gilbert + Tobin, the firm that represented PETA and several other defendants in the litigation, described AWI's decision to drop its lawsuit as "a clear lesson to other industries that it is extremely unwise to try to silence their critics by using heavy-handed litigation rather than sensible dialogue."

Under the terms of the agreement reached today, AWI is withdrawing its lawsuit and has pledged to do the following, among other things:

* Fast-track the development of genetic alternatives to mulesing by seeking a transition from over-woolled merino sheep to the bare-breeched breed, something that PETA has pushed for since its campaign began some 30 months ago
* Not stand in the way of a new labeling system that would ensure that consumers and retailers can distinguish between unmulesed wool and mulesed wool, giving unmulesed wool an advantage in the increasingly popular "compassion-aware" marketplace
* Be bound to provide quarterly reports to PETA detailing AWI's investments and progress in developing genetic alternatives to mulesing, and encourage the development, approval, and use of pain-relief products

While PETA sees AWI's promises under the agreement as encouraging, it has other promises in mind. "PETA promises the sheep who suffer greatly in the production of Australian wool garments that the upcoming holiday season will find us protesting all around the world to urge consumers to boycott all products made of Australian wool," continued Newkirk.

The sole "concession" PETA has agreed to in return is to temporarily halt a tactic the group had already turned away from�calling for boycotts of individual retailers that sell Australian wool--because the group has been successfully working with retailers to pressure AWI to make improvements. Through PETA's efforts, top retailers Liz Claiborne, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Timberland, and Limited Brands as well as U.K.-based megachains New Look and George have moved away from Australian wool, now favoring wool from countries that do not mutilate their sheep; in addition, Nordstrom and Ann Taylor are giving purchasing preference to nonmulesed wool. Fashion designer Marc Bouwer--whose celebrity clients include Mariah Carey, Charlize Theron, and Angelina Jolie--wrote to Prime Minister John Howard urging him to stop live exports and mulesing and pledged to ban Australian wool from his collections.

PETA's call for a boycott of Australian wool has garnered high-profile support from Pamela Anderson, Chrissie Hynde, Martina Navratilova, and Pink, whose Australian wool expose video will continue to be promoted on PETA's Web site.

Newkirk added, "For almost 90 years, the only end in sight was a bloody lamb's bottom, but only 30 months into PETA's campaign, we can see the beginning of the end for mulesing mutilations in Australia. Sheep farmers must face the fact that growing international disgust at the treatment of sheep must make almost any other non-animal occupation--including sewage-pipe cleaning--look like a more attractive proposition."

http://www.peta.org/MC/NewsItem.asp?id=9978