Michaels, Kohl’s, Neiman Marcus, Target, and Ulta Pull Badger-Hair Brushes From Nearly 6,000 Stores! Your Move, MÜHLE
Was one of these badgers killed for your makeup brush? If you use makeup, paint, or shaving brushes, and they’re not made from only synthetic materials, you are holding bristles stolen from a dead body. As reported in the New York Post, an eyewitness went inside eight badger hair farms in China and documented what the brush industry doesn’t want you to see.
What An Eyewitness Found on Badger Factory Farms
An eyewitness saw badgers trapped in tiny, filthy wire cages. One badger could only thrash around as a worker clamped metal tongs by the skin of their back and dragged them out. Then, the worker beat the badger, stabbed them, and tore off their skin.
China is the leading exporter of badger hair, meaning if you buy badger-hair brushes, you paid for someone to beat and skin a badger.
Then, the worker beat the badger, stabbed them, and tore off their skin.
5 Retail Giants Make a Major Move for Badgers
After PETA told Michaels, Kohl’s, Neiman Marcus, Target, and Ulta Beauty about the imminent exposé release, the leading chains stopped selling badger-hair brushes! That means these chains won’t sell badger-hair shaving brushes or paintbrushes online or in their nearly 6,000 stores combined.
For badgers, this means everything.
Now it’s MÜHLE’s Turn
MÜHLE and Van der Hagen still sell shaving brushes that are made with badger hair.
Will you help MÜHLE make the right decision?
What Happens in the Badger Hair Industry?
Inside each of the eight farms an eyewitness visited, badgers had no way to live like badgers. All they could do was pace constantly, chew on the cage wires, and dig frantically at the floor.
Many badgers were missing fur and had visible wounds and dried blood on their skin.
The eyewitness recorded a worker hit, stab, and cut open a badger who fought for more than three minutes before dying.
After viewing the footage, a wildlife veterinarian confirmed that the animal
“certainly felt severe pain throughout the slaughter process.”
Who Are Badgers?
Badgers are social, family-oriented individuals. In nature, they often live with their loved ones in groups. They build elaborate underground burrow systems, which like human homes, have separate areas for sleeping and going to the bathroom. Some are centuries old and passed down through generations.
Badgers build rich lives. They value their relationships and their freedom.
But on badger farms, humans don’t let them have even the most basic dignity, like physical comfort or choosing their own mates. Many break down psychologically—pacing back and forth and spinning in circles inside their cages barely bigger than their bodies.
This Isn’t Isolated Cruelty. This Industry Is Built on Violence.
PETA Asia was the first to expose the badger hair industry, prompting over 100 retailers and brands to ban badger brush sales. PETA Asia’s previous exposé found the same violence and disregard for these individuals. The eyewitness even caught a worker beating a badger with a chair leg.
There’s No Such Thing as an Ethical Badger-Hair Brush
No matter what the brush is for—makeup, painting, or shaving—badger-hair brushes come from animals who suffered and died. Their fur belongs to them, not to humans.
