Protest follows video footage of widespread mistreatment of sheep on Scottish farms
Three animal rights activists stopped pedestrians in their tracks on Glasgow's Buchanan Street in a shocking protest against the Scottish wool industry.
Holding a shorn sheep with signs saying "Scottish Wool: Sheep Kicked and Beaten" and "Wool Hurts, the protest exposed the stark reality of how sheep are abused for their wool on Scottish farms.
The protest comes in the wake of a Peta Asia eyewitness investigation of the Scottish wool industry which documented that workers struck terrified sheep in the face with electric clippers, slammed their heads into the floor, beat and kicked them, and threw them off shearing trailers.
The video footage highlights just some of the cruelty observed on 24 sheep farms toured by workers with a shearing contractor earlier this year.
Peta director Elisa Allen, said: "Sheep are gentle prey animals who are petrified of even being held down, yet they endure vicious beatings, bloody wounds, and broken limbs in the hideously cruel wool industry.”
"We want to encourage passers-by to ditch wool this winter in favour of soft and cosy cruelty-free materials for which no animal had to suffer."
Peta has asked the Scottish SPCA to launch an investigation in response to the footage and, if appropriate, file criminal charges against the workers for apparent violations of laws prohibiting cruelty to animals.
It follows the revelation in August of sheep on English farms being abused. Other exposés by Peta affiliates of farms across Australia, the US, and South America have revealed that sheep are mutilated, tormented, and sometimes skinned alive – even for "responsibly sourced" wool on so-called "sustainable" farms.
Once they're no longer considered useful for wool production, they're packed onto crowded lorries and taken to abattoirs, where their throats are slit.
Shearers are often paid by volume, not by the hour, which encourages fast, violent handling that leaves gaping wounds on the animals' bodies according to Peta.
