PETA Praises H&M for No Longer Buying Cruelly Produced Australian Wool

Wool Industry Unsuccessfully Attempts to Change Swedish Retail Giant's Mind

Stockholm - After learning from PETA that the Australian wool industry has reneged on its promise to phase out mulesing mutilations by 2010, Swedish-based international retail giant H&M has pledged to start sourcing more of the wool it uses from other countries. It also plans to ensure that the Australian merino wool it purchases comes only from farmers who don't practise mulesing, a crude procedure in which Australian farmers carve chunks of skin and flesh from lambs' backsides with shears – without any pain relief – in a misguided attempt to reduce maggot infestation, even though effective and humane prevention methods exist.

Following H&M's announcement, Australian wool industry representatives rushed to Sweden to meet with H&M, but they were unsuccessful in convincing the company to change its decision. H&M spokesperson Katarina Kempe told PETA, "The wool meeting [was] not a negotiation and will not change H&M's decision to direct our buying towards non-mulesed wool", adding, "[O]ur work aimed at finding wool growers in Australia - and elsewhere - that do not perform mulesing gained support ... and H&M's decision stands".