The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (Peta) probe into the alleged mistreatment of Angora goats for their fleece has been slammed as a “gross misrepresentation”.
The South African mohair industry has hit back at the international animal rights organisation following its announcement that more than 60 major international fashion retailers had pledged to cease selling mohair products by next year.
Earlier this month, Peta said they had conducted an investigation of 12 farms across South Africa in January and February.
Peta said an explicit exposé showed how baby goats were left cut up and bloody after being sheared. Some were being dragged by the horns or legs, and lifted off the floor by the tail, which could break their spines.
Peta said farmers had admitted that after shearing, many goats die from exposure to the cold wind and rain. “About
40000 reportedly died of exposure across South Africa in just one weekend.”
Mohair SA managing director Deon Saayman said: “While much of the report and accompanying footage are factually incorrect and a gross misrepresentation of the SA mohair industry, some isolated issues have been raised and we have launched an investigation to address these issues directly and swiftly.
“Over the past decade, the industry has taken great care to ensure that sustainable production practices are introduced, accompanied by third-party audits as of the beginning of this year.”
Once the investigation was concluded and had identified those who had transgressed the sustainable industry guidelines, punitive measures will be implemented and they will face action in terms of the Animal Protection Act.
“In the interim, all mohair-producing farms implicated during the investigation will be suspended and withdrawn from auction until they have been audited and found to be in line with industry guidelines,” Saayman said.
Peta Asia’s Jason Baker said: “Cruelty and mistreatment of goats are inherent in the mohair industry, despite the SA Mohair Growers Association’s purported ‘Code of Production’.
“Peta’s eyewitness exposé documented that goat kids which were being shorn for the first time cried out in fear and pain. Shearers - who are paid by the volume, not by the hour - worked quickly and
carelessly.”
Baker said these actions were not “a freak”, as Saayman claims. “Exposés of the clothing industry have revealed time and again that when animals are seen as nothing more than commodities cruel treatment of them is inevitable.”