H&M, Esprit ban threatens S African mohair industry

Bloomberg

A ban on mohair by dozens of clothing retailers, including Hennes & Mauritz AB and Esprit Holdings, is threatening a $117 million industry in South Africa, the world’s biggest producer of the fibre.
Almost 70 clothing companies worldwide have announced they’ll stop using mohair following the release this month of video footage from twelve Angora
goat farms in South Africa’s Karoo region. The footage showed goats being dragged by the legs or horns and sustaining injuries
from shearing.
The US-based animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, which produced the video, alleges that abuse in the mohair industry is “rampant and routine” and inflicts “unspeakable suffering.”
While the industry organisation Mohair South Africa announced earlier this month it would immediately suspend mohair from the farms implicated in the video, it said it considers much of the report to be incorrect and misrepresenting the industry. There are about 1,000 Angora goat farms in the country, employing an estimated 30,000 people. “Angora goats are farmed for their fiber and not intentionally harmed in any way as they are the livelihood of every mohair farmer,” the group said.