PETA Global 2017 Issue 1

Why Joaquin Phoenix Won’t Wear Wool P hoenix’s ad in support of PETA’s anti-wool campaign was launched just in time for the busiest shopping season of the year. In it, he appears in a vegan wool Brave GentleMan

Sue Coe: © Steve Murray | The Animals' Vegan Manifesto images courtesy of © Sue Coe | Joaquin Phoenix: © Michael Muller

suit, alongside a flock of rescued sheep. The ad debuted the very same week that a PETA complaint resulted in cruelty-to-animals charges against six Australian shearers, a first in the world’s largest wool-producing country – and the first anywhere in the world. The charges came about after a PETA exposé documented that shearers had beaten sheep in the face with electric clippers, stomped on them, kicked them, and subjected them to other forms of abuse. Also for the first time in history, a shearer pleaded guilty to cruelty charges – he was the first to go to court and is now barred from being in charge of farmed animals for two years. During the ad shoot, Phoenix chatted with PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange about the implications of wearing wool. Lisa Lange : Wool doesn’t seem like something that’s cruel – sheep aren’t killed for it. So a lot of people think, “Why can’t I wear wool?” Did you ever feel that way? Joaquin Phoenix: I did, and I was also very naïve about [which] clothing used wool. I thought that I was avoiding wool because I never really thought that bulky sweaters were wool. I never knew that suits were made of wool. But at some point, I did realize it was wool. And I had that rationalization – “Well, it’s something that is just taken off them, and there’s not a lot of abuse” – which seems incredibly naïve, and that’s a nice way of saying it. And so, a couple years ago, I realized that it was something that I wanted to avoid. I’ve been vegan practically my whole life, and I don’t use animal products. I don’t use leather. But really, when PETA sent me that video of this [eyewitness] investigation of what happened in these shearing farms, that was really eye opening. It’s undeniably cruel.

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LL: Is it easier to be vegan now than it was when you were younger? JP: Absolutely. There’s so many different products that are available now, both in

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food and in clothing. But clothing has really changed dramatically in the last few years. I remember it was very difficult getting nonleather shoes, particularly dress shoes or suits – things of that nature were always very difficult to find. So it’s changed a great deal. LL: PETA’s exposés of the wool industry have revealed that sheep are punched in the face, dragged through their own urine, stitched up without painkillers, and subjected to other abuse – they’re roughly treated. In the footage that you saw, what stuck out to you? JP: To be honest, I feel a sympathy and a sadness for everyone involved. It’s easy for us to sympathize with the animals, but the workers are incentivized to move as quickly as possible. And it seems that the whole environment is one that’s incredibly stressful and uncomfortable, and I think that breeds an ugliness in the people involved. It’s apparent that for the quantity that they’re trying to gather, it’s impossible to do that in a humane way. And so, it seems that the only option is to not use wool. That’s become abundantly clear.

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