German luxury fashion brand Hugo Boss has pledged to become mulesing-free beginning 2025, following an initiative by global animal welfare organisation Four Paws to ban the practice of mulesing lambs for wool.
According to the company, it will exclusively source mulesing-free wool for its pure wool suits and eliminate mulesed wool from its entire collection by 2030.
Mulesing is the practice of removing skin around a sheep’s buttocks, which in turn forms an area where wool does not grow. This procedure creates smoother skin that won’t collect moisture and prevent fly infestations – most of the time, with no local anesthetics involved.
Many animal welfare organisations are heavily advocating against mulesing, but most farmers oppose this, with a justification that dying from flystrike is more painful and that there are no “viable alternatives” to mulesing sheep.
“My position is entirely pro-mulesing with pain relief and giving people a choice to decide what is best for their farm,” Australian wool grower Chick Olsson tells Sheep Central.
According to a recent study, over 75 per cent of wool exports and nearly 90 per cent of popular fine merino wool used in the fashion industry hails from Australia, the only country in the world where mulesing is still performed.
Rebecca Picallo Gil, campaign manager for wool at Four Paws, said that Hugo Boss had been one of the most vocal and active supporters of mulesing-free wool, and finally, the company will put its words into practice.
“This strong signal should encourage as many brands as possible from different fashion sectors to take the same step,” said Gil. “We could already see that outdoor brands, in particular, are opposing mulesing wool, while luxury fashion manufacturers showed rather little interest.”
The commitment sees the fashion brand join 35 international brands, such as Adidas, Calvin Klein, and Puma, opposing the practice.
