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One of the UK’s largest online fashion and beauty retailers ASOS, which stocks more than 850 fashion labels alongside its own range of clothing and accessories, has updated its animal welfare policy to include a number of animal-based materials which will no longer be sold on the site.
According to the new policy, ASOS will no longer sell any clothing, jewellery or homeware that includes the use of feathers or down, animal bones or horns, shells (such as mother of pearl), teeth, mohair, cashmere, and silk.
According to ASOS, no further orders will be placed for products containing these materials and the site will be free of any products that contain these materials by the end of January 2019.
The ASOS Animal Welfare Policy applies to all products sold through any of the retailer’s websites, including the ASOS brand, brands and marketplace traders.
Under the terms of the policy, suppliers must not use any part of vulnerable, endangered, exotic or wild-caught species in their products; not use fur, including Mongolian lamb’s fur or rabbit hair (angora); and not use feather/down, bone, horn, shell (including mother of pearl), teeth, mohair, cashmere or silk.
The ban comes after leading animal rights charity PETA used shocking footage to expose the cruelty of the mohair industry in South Africa, which resulted in more 140 international retailers – including Topshop, H&M, and Marks & Spencer – to ban the material.
PETA has applauded ASOS for “leading the charge for compassion in fashion.”
In a statement, PETA director of corporate projects, Yvonne Taylor, said: “In response to PETA’s campaigns, consumers are changing the face of the industry by demanding that designers and retailers ditch animal-derived materials in favour of cruelty-free alternatives that look great without causing suffering,”
