Michael Kors Is Dubbed the Biggest Failure in Fashion on Sheep Welfare, a Recent Report Reveals

FOUR PAWS’ campaign sparks over 85,000 protest emails and celebrity backlash demanding action

Cape Town, 25 November 2025 – Michael Kors faces pressure to respond to a growing public outcry after celebrities and global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS targets the brand for ignoring the suffering of ten million lambs mutilated annually for wool fashion items. After months of ignored engagement attempts, animal welfare advocates have protested outside multiple Michael Kors stores, while concerned shoppers have already sent more than 85,000 protest emails urging the brand to commit to using certified live lamb cut-free wool only. The movement has also gained momentum with a wave of high-profile criticisms from celebrities, models, and actors echoing the call for change. Yet Michael Kors remains silent, turning a blind eye to both consumers and one of the biggest cruelty issues, sheep suffer for wool. FOUR PAWS continues to push for a meaningful shift in the brand’s wool policy while offering clear guidance for shoppers who want to avoid wool linked to live lamb cutting (LLC).

“Michael Kors is pulling the wool over consumer’s eyes by failing to commit to certified LLC-free wool and offering zero transparency on its wool sourcing. The company has also consistently ignored our repeated offers to engage in dialogue. To date, Michael Kors stands out as the biggest failure in the fashion industry regarding sheep welfare. We are optimistic that the company will react to the strong global support from animal lovers, and we encourage everyone to speak up and email the brand,” says Rebecca Picallo Gil, responsible for textiles at FOUR PAWS.

Lamb protection backed by prominent U.S. influencers
In a new video, animal rights activist, Elizabeth Turner, media influencer Will Moncada, writer and activist, Kathy Freston, actor and attorney, Shaka Smith and musician and influencer, Lucy Blehar “Break Up” with Michael Kors due to its negligence to commit to certified wool free from LLC.

“Live Lamb Cutting is horrific,” says Shaka Smith in the video and Elizabeth Turner adds, “Innocent lambs are forced to endure so much pain.”

A recent report shines a light on the important role of kind shoppers
FOUR PAWS’ latest report, Behind the Wool: Transparency on Live Lamb Cutting in Fashion, investigated and ranked 102 fashion brands across eleven countries to assess their commitment and transparency around LLC in their wool supply chains. Michael Kors scored zero out of 100 possible points, making it the worst of the rated brands and leaving animal welfare-conscious consumers completely uninformed at the point of sale.

“More and more consumers are fed up with this lack of accountability. To make truly ethical fashion choices, choose brands that hold credible certifications that exclude live lamb cutting in their wool sourcing. Always check garment tags -if merino wool items don’t display a transparent certification, chances are high they contain LLC wool. If in doubt, visit their websites or try tools such as FOUR PAWS Brand Directory,” concludes Picallo Gil.

Background
Throughout FOUR PAWS’ work to protect sheep within wool supply chains, this is not the first time the global animal welfare organisation collaborated with celebrities. In February 2025, FOUR PAWS released a video series called Be Their Voice which included Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop, actors Nicole Zyana, Logan Shroyer, Deirdre Friel, and model and activist, Elizabeth Turner. In October 2024, FOUR PAWS released a star-studded animated video featuring Australian actress Danielle Macdonald and U.S. actor Scott Evans, hoping to spread awareness about live lamb cutting.

About the Transparency report
For the report, FOUR PAWS carried out in-store investigations of 102 fashion brands across Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK and the US, as well as desktop research to evaluate:

• the brand’s wool sourcing policies on excluding live lamb cut wool
• the brand’s product descriptions online and at the point of sale

The report reveals, that 67% of assessed brands failed to disclose how they address LLC in their wool sourcing policies, their product labelling, or both. While 84% of the fashion companies claimed to oppose LLC, only 33% provided LLC-free certifications at the product level, leaving consumers unable to make informed, compassionate purchasing decisions. This report focuses specifically on LLC and does not assess broader animal welfare practices.

About Live Lamb Cutting
Live lamb cutting (also known as mulesing) is a result of poor breeding practices that have left Merino sheep in Australia highly vulnerable to a condition called flystrike. Despite viable alternatives, lambs as young as two weeks are torn from their mothers and restrained in metal cradles. Using sharp shears, similar to garden shears, a palm-sized section of skin from around the lamb’s tail and genitals is cut off -all without adequate pain relief. Severe pain haunts the animals for days, the wounds take weeks to heal, but the scars remain a lifetime.

Author: Deidre Daniels .