Is your woolly jumper REALLY cruel? That's what Alicia Silverstone claims in a new animal rights advert. But furious sheep farmers say it's nonsense

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Standing barefoot in a lush green forest, blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders and a provocative pout playing on her lips, Hollywood actress Alicia Silverstone stares into the camera lens.

She’s au naturel, baring her behind in a photo for the animal welfare charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), renowned for its attention-grabbing publicity. So what’s prompted the glamorous A-lister to strip off? A new campaign against wearing fur, perhaps? An attack on crocodile skin handbags or leather shoes?

No, this time PETA — and its willing band of celebrity crusaders — has taken on the wool industry. ‘I’d rather go naked than wear wool,’ reads the banner surrounding Ms Silverstone’s naked form. Underneath, the message urges: ‘Wear your own skin. Let animals keep theirs.’

Bizarrely, she clasps the mask of a ewe’s head. With glassy eyes fixed on something out of shot, it — like many who saw her campaign — looks confused. In a video accompanying the photo, the actress, 40, issued an emotional statement about the alleged cruelty of the wool industry.

Alicia Silverstone in a new advert for PETA, where she states she would 'rather go naked than wear wool'

Pamela Anderson has also starred in a PETA advert, encouraging people to go vegetarian

Sheep, she claimed, ‘are tossed around, roughly shorn, injured with sharp tools, even punched and kicked by stressed workers. They are routinely denied veterinary care for wounds or injuries, and some die from the shock of the experience.’

To those of us sheltering from the icy winter chill in cosy cable knits and warm woollen blankets, her words are certainly sobering.

Britain is one of the world’s biggest producers of raw wool, with 90,000 farmers shearing nearly 40 million kilograms of it a year — and, as consumers, we can’t get enough. The UK wool clothing market, including knitwear, luxury fashion and suits, is worth £1.25 billion annually.

Unlike fur and exotic skins (industries known to be rife with animal abuses and criminality), wool isn’t something most of us will have considered controversial, let alone cruel.

So can it really be true that shearing sheep is tantamount to torture? Are we unwittingly complicit every time we wear the wool from their backs?

On a windswept Lake District hilltop, a world away from the one inhabited by celebrity campaigners, shepherd James Rebanks has some strong views on the matter.

Emma Sjoberg, Tatjana Patitz, Heather Stewart Whyte, Fabienne Terwinghe and Naomi Campbell in an anti-fur campaign poster for Peta in 1994

Joss Stone has stripped off to appear like a crocodile for an advert which discouraged people from purchasing bags made from exotic animals

James, 41, grew up on a sheep farm and started shepherding his father’s and grandfather’s flock aged 15.

Today, he, wife Helen and their three children have more than 900 sheep, most of them from the Herdwick breed. 

He says his flock’s welfare is at the heart of everything he does. 

‘If shearing hurt the sheep, we simply wouldn’t do it,’ James explains. ‘Shearing takes years of practice, and the first lesson you learn is how to hold a sheep properly so it doesn’t get stressed or injured. The sheep is worth far more than the wool.’

In fact, it can be far more damaging for sheep if they aren’t regularly shorn, says James.

‘They get dirty and develop a condition called flystrike, which occurs when flies lay eggs on their wool and these then hatch into maggots.’

Several hundred miles away, in Kent, Trevor Richards, a third-generation sheep farmer who has 400 Romney ewes, staunchly agrees. 

‘Sheep need to be sheared annually because they get distressed carrying too much weight, which gets bedraggled and uncomfortable,’ he says. ‘It’s in their best interests, and the majority of shearing is done painlessly and with minimal discomfort.’

Shearing, he adds, is ‘a lot like shaving. Occasionally you make a superficial nick on the skin, but it’s only very rarely a deeper wound.

‘The majority of shearers in the UK are remarkably skilled and will treat any kind of cut accordingly.

‘It’s in our interests to look after the sheep — they’re our livelihood.’

Pamela Wigmore, a shepherd’s wife who runs a sheep farm in East Sussex with husband Terry, adds: ‘They’re very hardy — they survive outside in the cold and wind and rain. They don’t mind shearing one bit.’

The sentiments of these real-life farmers couldn’t be more different from the claims on which PETA has based its latest crusade.

Much like its anti-fur campaign back in 1994 (who could forget the nude photos of models Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford declaring they would ‘rather go naked than wear fur’), the charity is using powerful imagery and emotive statements to discourage supporters from buying and wearing wool.

Few who read PETA’S website could fail to be moved by the plight of sheep ‘who feel pain, fear and loneliness’, yet are ‘treated as nothing more than wool-producing machines’.

Shearers, it says, are paid by volume, so they work quickly, with no regard for the welfare of the sheep.

Frail lambs, it alleges, have their ears hole-punched, their tails chopped off, and males are castrated without any painkillers, leading to the deaths of hundreds before they’re even eight weeks old. These horrific stories, PETA adds, come from an investigation of more than 30 shearing sheds across the U.S. and Australia — but not in the UK.

Actress Kim Basinger was one of the first people to appear in the naked adverts for PETA

Supermodel Christy Turlington also appeared in a 'I'd rather go naked than wear fur' advert for PETA in 1992

When contacted by the Mail, the charity admitted the investigations were, in fact, carried out in 2013 and 2014, although this is not highlighted anywhere on the recent campaign.

Most of its ire is directed at a practice known as ‘mulesing’, which is when folds of skin are removed from around the sheep’s tail to prevent infection.

However, there are strict rules against this practice in Britain, and retailers including M&S, Topshop and H&M refuse to stock wool that comes from mulesed sheep abroad.

‘Globally, as with any industry, there will always be bad apples, especially as shearers are often transient workers,’ explains Tim Booth of the British Wool Marketing Board.

‘The textile industry is very aware of its responsibility to ensure animals that deliver the wool are well cared for.’

Indeed, UK farmers are horrified by the barbaric practices PETA claims take place in other countries. Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association and a sheep farmer in Gloucestershire, says strict measures are in place to ensure British animals are not hurt. Though experts take as little as one minute to shear a sheep with electric clippers, this is perfectly safe and there is no risk to its health.

‘Shearers are careful to leave a 3-5mm layer of fleece to protect their skin,’ Phil explains.

Kelly Brook was painted as a snake and posed for PETA in 2011. This was part of their Whose Skin Are You In? campaign

Tamara Ecclestone, daughter of Formula One chief executive Bernie, starred in an advert highlighting the issues with Foie Gras

‘You have to hold the sheep in such a way that the skin is taut and stretched out, with no wrinkles. This minimises the risk of it getting caught in the shears.

‘The older wool — furthest from the body — becomes quite loose over time, and it comes away easily, so there’s no need for force.’

An ancient skill, sheep shearing can be traced as far back as 5000BC. The Romans, who invaded Britain in 55BC, cherished the woollen cloth they found, declaring it ‘so fine that it was comparable with a spider’s web’.

Today, upmarket fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Ralph Lauren are using it. In 2012, Chanel bought the Scottish Barrie Knitwear cashmere mill and began making high-end garments. The PETA campaign comes as Britain’s wool sales are soaring, rising by 50 per cent to £270 million in just five years.

Fascinatingly, as our love of wool grows, the sheep themselves have started to adapt.

While some primitive breeds (such as Hebridean and Shetland) shed most of their wool every year, domestic sheep have evolved to grow their wool continually, all the year round.

This is because, for centuries, they have been shorn by humans — and so have come to expect the shearing process as an annual ritual that keeps their wool growth in check.

It’s hard to imagine Alicia Silverstone, who lives in sunny LA, has ever set foot in the rain-drenched British countryside, let alone a sheep farm.

But it’s clear our home-grown farmers, suppliers and wool producers have absolutely nothing to hide.

So don’t even think about throwing out all those cosy winter woollies this winter. Instead, wear them with pride, and show your support for this ancient, hard-working industry.

And why not send a nice chunky knit Ms Silverstone’s way? By the looks of things, she doesn’t have a stitch to wear.