Members of PETA - dressed in costumes and covered in fake blood - claimed the traditional farming practice is cruel and hurts animals.
Finn Macdiarmid reports.
Finn Macdiarmid reports.
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00:00Canterbury is certainly in the Christmas spirit with their high street market, but not everyone
00:04is this holiday season. PETA, or Protection for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, say
00:09that the use of wool for jumpers, scarves and other warm clothing is a cruel practice.
00:13So they held a protest, wearing sheep's costumes, stepping inside a snow globe and
00:17spraying themselves with fake blood to highlight the alleged injustice and raise awareness.
00:22Do we have the wool pulled too far over our eyes? That's the question that PETA wants
00:26us to think about this Christmas, as they urge us to stop the cruel practice of shearing
00:30sheep, which they say can leave them bruised and bloody.
00:33Yeah, so we think it's really important that people understand the ins and outs of the
00:37wool industry and various other animal industries. At the end of the day, we have a choice in
00:41what we wear. They don't have the choice to not give up their own skin and their own wool.
00:46That's their bodies at the end of the day. So we're putting ourselves out here with us,
00:50in the cold, to stand up for them, because I think a lot of people don't understand how
00:55horrific the wool industry is. So it's really important to bring awareness to that.
00:59But I wanted to know if this had real backing, or if it was just to gain attention.
01:03Do you think PETA by this point has made a bit of a reputation for just doing stunts
01:06rather than actually promoting animal awareness?
01:09I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we do behind the scenes. And it's not just stunts,
01:13obviously. The more controversial and biggest stunts are great because they get into mainstream
01:17news and media and reach audiences who perhaps wouldn't have seen and come across these topics
01:22before. But then we do do a lot of grassroots activity like this as such, where we can hand
01:27out leaflets, have conversations with people, get talking to people. So we do do a bit of both,
01:31but I guess it's more the stunts that people would more commonly see.
01:35Christmas shoppers passing by also gave their own views.
01:38It's great. I think everyone should get on board with this. Change the way you feel about things.
01:44I don't really get the issue, because I feel like sheep are producing a natural ingredient that
01:50helps us all, you know.
01:53I think it's a little extreme. I really think everybody needs to have a choice.
01:58And when things are taken to extremes, it becomes quite dangerous.
02:03PETA said their internal investigations found routine instances of sheep being punched,
02:08kicked and abused. But not everyone agrees.
02:11From our experience of shearing sheep, there's absolutely no reason to be doing that.
02:16It could look a little rough-handed when you're trying to grab a ram and turn him onto his bottom
02:25to make him sit up so you can shear him. You know, you have to be quite firm on that.
02:31But there's no punching and kicking.
02:32Canterbury has seen many animal protests over the last few years. And while some might disagree with
02:37PETA, others in Canterbury's High Street might be persuaded to trade their walljumpers for
02:42polyester this Christmas. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Canterbury.