World’s First New Zealand Wool Investigation Exposes “Ethical” Scam
From 2023 to the end of 2024, PETA Asia-Pacific went inside 11 farms and shearing sheds in New Zealand that produce ZQ-certified wool, a sham certification standard developed and owned by The New Zealand Merino Company. The company calls itself “the world’s leading ethical wool brand” and claims that “sheep producing the wool are humanely treated” – but as this investigation reveals, there is no such thing as “ethical” or “humane” wool.
Investigators discovered the following:
- Shearers kicked, beat, and stomped on sheep and threw them down chutes. One worker slammed a sheep’s head against a hard wooden board three times.
- Workers whipped, tackled, and hit sheep with various objects, including a ski pole.
- Sheep were left with gaping wounds that were stitched up without painkillers. One worker laughed at a sheep as blood ran down their face from an eye injury.
- Sheep were forced into severely crowded enclosures, leading to one being smothered to death. Her wool was still shorn to be prepared for sale.
- A farmer slit the throat of a conscious sheep after the animal spent days struggling and collapsing. Her body was dumped into a trash pit. It was common for investigators to find dead sheep on the farms.
- Farmers used dogs, who sometimes attacked the sheep, to control and terrorise them. However, even these dogs weren’t spared abuse, as one farmer kicked them in the head and another farmer jabbed a dog several times with a pole.
Labeling Lies Exposed
A second PETA Asia-Pacific investigation into New Zealand’s wool industry revealed that the abuse and suffering on ZQ-accredited farms were similar to those on farms without any certification. New Zealand’s wool industry is rife with rampant abuse at every stage of operations—from terrified lambs enduring agonizing mutilations without any pain relief to shearers punching struggling sheep in the face and slamming them to the floor. Workers were seen cutting holes in lambs’ ears and burning their tails off with a hot iron, without administering any pain relief. The bodies of dead sheep were scattered around the properties, including one whose remains were tossed from the second floor of a shearing shed.
The Slaughter Behind New Zealand’s ‘Humane’ Wool
Investigators have also documented what the wool industry tries to keep out of sight: Once sheep are no longer considered useful, they are sent to slaughter. In their final moments, terrified sheep are funneled down a narrow chute, and workers jolt them with an electric stunner, but may fail to render them unconscious. When workers slice open their throats, sheep may still be conscious. After years of enduring violent shearing in the wool sheds, their final minutes are filled with terror and, for some, agonising pain.
