Please boycott mulesing/wool: send sample letter

Mick Lobb

BACKGROUND

You have probably been following PETA Asia-Pacific’s campaign against mulesing. If so, you know that the Australian wool industry promised to phase out mulesing by 2010 but then reneged on that agreement. Seeing that the industry had no intention of doing the right thing, PETA Asia and its affiliates have been talking to manufacturers and retailers around the world asking them to boycott mulesed wool, which virtually all comes from Australia. Please join PETA in speaking up for lambs by sending an e-mail to Uniqlo, now the fourth largest retailer in the world, asking them to stop purchasing Australian wool from mulesed flocks.

To make sure your letter has a good chance of being read, follow these tips:

• Put “Please boycott mulesing” in the subject line of your e-mails.
• Be brief! Sometimes one short, pithy paragraph is enough – try to stay under half a page.
• Make sure you include your name and address in your letter. Anonymous letters are usually disregarded.

For more tips on writing effective letters, please see PETA U.S.’ letter-writing guide.

The following talking points can be rephrased in your e-mail to get you started:

• Mulesing is an extremely painful and totally unnecessary procedure performed on Australian sheep in which farmers force sheep onto their backs, restrain their legs between metal bars and cut huge chunks of skin and flesh from their backsides – often without administering any painkillers.
• More humane methods exist for preventing flystrike and are used by many Australian farmers.
• The Australian wool industry will not listen to appeals that they ensure animal welfare – only lost sales will move them.
• Many major international retailers – including H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Perry Ellis, HUGO BOSS, Liz Claiborne, Next, Adidas, Gap Inc., Talbots, Giordano and Korean retail giant Kukdong Corporation – have pledged to move away from mulesed wool or implemented an outright ban on wool from mulesed lambs.

More information is available at PETAAsiaPacific.com/Issues-NotToWear.asp#Wool.

Thank you in advance for your action for animals.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Please note that one email was undeliverable, but I will keep it in in case it gets reactivated:

Delivery to the following recipients was aborted after 1 second(s): * r_g_frgcsr@fastretailing.com

Mr Yukihiro Nitta
Managing Director
Fast Retailing
fr_g_frgcsr@fastretailing.com

Mr Tadashi Yanai
President
Fast Retailing
tyanai@uniqlo.co.jp


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Managing Director Nitta and President Yanai,

I am writing to ask that you please stop purchasing Australian wool from mulesed flocks and, favorably, that you ban wool altogether in favor of stylish and profitable synthetics. Nevertheless, as a procedure, mulesing causes extreme pain, and is characterized by sheep being forcefully restrained and huge chunks of skin and flesh cut from their backsides. Animal welfare standards are often ignored in favor of profit: the Australian wool industry ignores appeals that mulesing be banned and only lost sales will affect their actions. Your decision to ban mulesed wool would equal that of corporate giants H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Perry Ellis, HUGO BOSS, Liz Claiborne, Next, Adidas, Gap Inc., Talbots, Giordano and Korean Kukdong Corporation who have pledged to move away from mulesed wool or have implemented an outright ban on wool from mulesed lambs.

Your decision to ban wool will have a positive, ethical, and profitable impact on your company.  Thank you for taking the time to read this urgent message.

NAME

i think the farmers
would be in unhappy
sh*t, deep
if they found
themselves
shorn just like
their own
sheep

Karen Lyons Kalmenson