Une plainte en justice des producteurs de laine australiens contre Peta abandonnée

Australian wool industry drops lawsuit against PETA

A lawsuit filed against PETA by the group Australian Wool Innovation over the animal protection organization’s global boycott of cruelly-produced wool has been abandoned.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) began its campaign against Australian wool in 2004 to put an end to two abuses of sheep raised for wool — mulesing (the mutilation of the lambs’ hind quarters), and live exports to the Middle East (many sheep die en route in squalid conditions on the weeks-long journeys, and most who survive are abused in ways that would be illegal in Australia.

Lawyer Fraser Shepherd of Gilbert + Tobin, the firm which represented PETA and several other defendants in the litigation, described Australian Wool Innovation's (AWI) decision to drop its lawsuit as "a clear lesson to other industries that it is extremely unwise to try to silence their critics by using heavy-handed litigation, rather than sensible dialogue.”

Under the terms of the agreement reached with PETA, AWI is withdrawing its lawsuit and has had to pledge, among other things:

• to fast-track the development of genetic alternatives to mulesing by seeking the transition of over-woolled Merino sheep to the bare-breeched breed, something PETA has pushed for since its campaign began some 30 months ago;

• not to stand in the way of a new labelling system to ensure that consumers and retailers can tell unmulesed wool from mulesed wool, giving it an advantage in the increasingly popular "compassion-aware" marketplace; and

• to be bound to provide quarterly reports to PETA detailing AWI’s investments and progress in developing genetic alternatives to mulesing, and to encourage the development, approval and use of pain relief products.

The sole “concession” PETA has agreed to in return for these pledges is to temporarily halt a tactic the group had already turned away from calling for boycotts of individual retailers that sell Australian wool because the group has been successfully working with retailers to pressure AWI to make improvements.

Top retailers Liz Claiborne, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Timberland, Limited Brands and UK-based mega-chains New Look and George have moved away from Australian wool, now favouring wool from countries that do not mutilate their sheep, while Nordstrom and Ann Taylor are giving purchasing preference to non-mulesed wool. Fashion designer Marc Bouwer – whose celebrity clients include Mariah Carey, Charlize Theron, and Angelina Jolie–wrote to Prime Minister John Howard, urging him to stop live exports and mulesing and pledged to ban Australian wool from his collections.

PETA’s call for a boycott of Australian wool has garnered high-profile support from Pamela Anderson, Chrissie Hynde, Annalise, Martina Navratilova, and Pink, whose Australian wool exposé video will continue to be promoted on PETA’s Web site.

For more information, including video exposés of the cruel practices of mulesing and live export, visit PETA.org.

http://www.arkangelweb.org/international/australia/20070701petawinsuit.php