A Place To Call Home actor fronts PETA’s latest wool campaign
Actor Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood’s grandfather was a sheep farmer, but that hasn’t stopped the A Place To Call Home star fronting a PETA campaign targeting Australia’s wool industry. WARNING: DISTRESSING VIDEO
NSW
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A Place To Call Home actor Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood has fronted a controversial new campaign for animal activist group PETA targeting the Australian wool industry.
With fake blood on her body and acting as if she had been beaten, Parkes-Lockwood appears in the graphic ad campaign video telling the story from a sheep perspective.
In it, the vegan actor pleads: “Please, never buy wool”.
“The controversial graphic nature of this is absolutely real,” Parkes-Lockwood said. “The images that you see in that video, they are really happening.”
WoolProducers Australia president Ed Storey dismissed PETA’s latest campaign as merely another publicity stunt.
“These people are just about raising money for themselves and do this every year at this time,” Storey told Confidential.
“The health and welfare of our sheep is the number one priority for Australian woolgrowers.
“We need to ensure we have healthy and happy sheep to produce the most sustainable, natural and biodegradable fibre in the world.”
The Australian wool industry is the largest in the world, providing more than 80 per cent of apparel fibre globally.
It provides regional employment and was responsible for $3.61 billion in export revenue in 2017/18.
Australian Wool Innovation chief executive Stuart McCullough works with wool growers to undertake research to ensure productivity and the health and welfare of sheep.
“The AWI strongly advocates for the highest standard of on-farm animal husbandry practices, while recognising we do not have the statutory power to legislate in this area,” he said.
“This includes supporting and promoting the best practice use of anaesthetic and analgesic which is widely used by Australian woolgrowers.”
Parkes-Lockwood grew up in regional NSW and says her grandfather was a sheep farmer.
“My grandfather was this wonderful man and he had an incredibly gentle soul, but I’d say when he was doing it, there weren’t alternatives,” Parkes-Lockwood said.
“The world was a much smaller place then. There weren’t alternative careers for people, there weren’t alternative fibres for fashion back then.
“Basically with industries like this, there comes a time they need to change.”
Originally published as A Place To Call Home actor fronts PETA’s latest wool campaign