The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against an advert from animal rights campaigners PETA displayed on the sides of buses earlier this year, which claimed “Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes. Wool is just as cruel as fur.”

The message “GO WOOL-FREE THIS WINTER PeTA” was positioned alongside an image of a woman with the neck of her jumper pulled over her face.

Ten complainants, who believed that sheep needed to be shorn for health reasons and therefore wool should not be compared to fur, challenged whether the claim “wool is just as cruel as fur” was misleading and could be substantiated.

In response to the complaints People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said that over the last few decades the general public had become more aware of the cruelty that existed in the fur trade.

“However, the same abuses and suffering had also been documented in the wool trade but were not as well known by the public. They provided details of cruelty and abuse that occurred in both the fur and wool industries, which included genetic alterations and the mutilation of animals.

“For example, in the fur industry animals were bred to grow to a larger size and to become overweight so that their pelts would be larger and fetch more money.

“Likewise, in the wool industry sheep were bred with genetic abnormalities which compromised their welfare, such as merino sheep in Australia that were deliberately bred for the largest possible skin surface area which meant more wool per animal.

In its ruling the ASA said: “We considered people who saw the ad would interpret the claim “wool is just as cruel as fur” as equating the conditions in which sheep were kept and the methods by which wool was obtained with the conditions and methods used in the fur industry.

“However, sheep were not killed for their wool as animals were in the fur industry and there were standards in place relating to their general welfare including relating to the shearing process. We therefore concluded on that basis that the claim was misleading and in breach of the Code.”

The full ruling can be read here

https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals-peta-foundation-G19-1018024.html