Artists join forces with global animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS for a citywide journey of sheep installations- asking the question the fashion industry hasn’t answered: Can consumers be sure their wool is free from live lamb cutting?

New York, Sept. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the eve of New York Fashion Week, artists and global animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS are unveiling Counting Sheep: a citywide journey of lamb- and sheep-themed art installations that pulls back the curtain on live lamb cutting (LLC), a painful practice hidden in the wool supply chains of global fashion. Free and open to the public throughout Fashion Week (September 9–16), the works appear at seven locations across Brooklyn and Manhattan, inviting New Yorkers and fashion week attendees to find each piece, learn the truth behind their wool, and call on the fashion industry to source only wool free from this practice.

Live lamb cutting, also known as mulesing, is a routine mutilation practice in Australian Merino wool production. Every year, 10 million lambs suffer excruciating pain from the procedure, in which lambs as young as two weeks old have skin and flesh larger than the palm of a hand cut from around their tails and genitals, without adequate pain relief. Hundreds of thousands do not survive. While this is done to prevent an issue called flystrike, safe, pain-free alternatives already exist and are used by thousands of farmers — yet more than half of the wool used globally for fashion comes from sheep who have suffered the practice.

In October 2025, FOUR PAWS published Behind the Wool: Transparency on Live Lamb Cutting in Fashion, which investigated and scored more than 100 fashion brands across 11 countries. Nearly 70 percent of the brands reviewed lacked transparency on the issue, leaving consumers in the dark about what they are buying - one major brand ranked among the worst.

Michael Kors, which presents its collection during New York Fashion Week this week on September 11th, scored zero, as it failed to disclose any policy or product information related to live lamb cutting. The brand has not publicly disclosed a commitment to sourcing only wool free from the practice. FOUR PAWS is inviting Michael Kors, and every brand yet to make a public commitment, to do so. Reflecting the brand’s score, two dual-perspective murals will be painted by the anonymous artist Praxis: one will show a lamb looking into a Michael Kors fashion show, while the other will swap the point of view to reveal the lamb’s face looking back.

“Every sheep in this installation represents those who bear the consequences of the fashion industry’s choices,” says Melanie Lary, FOUR PAWS U.S. Research and Campaigns Manager. “Despite alternatives available, fashion brands continue to source wool connected to the cruelty of live lamb cutting. And while many brands oppose this practice, too many still fail to provide clear and consistent public information about their wool sourcing policies and on product labelling. This gap in transparency hurts both lambs and consumers who oppose this cruel practice.”

Each artwork stands for the millions of lambs subjected to live lamb cutting in Australia. Expressed through painting, photography, murals and sculpture, some works were made for the project while others are existing pieces the artists chose to bring to it. The experience is designed to spark curiosity rather than protest: beautiful, thought-provoking art works unravel an invisible industry practice, with New York City, one of the world’s fashion capitals, as the canvas.

Counting Sheep Artwork locations include:

  • Aliume Gallery, 41 Porter Avenue, East Williamsburg — luminescent, glow-in-the-dark painting by Alex Aliume.
  • Dumbo Archway — two photography cubes presented with Photoville. The first, in partnership with We Animals, features Jo-Anne McArthur, Kelly Dinham, Aitor Garmendia and Andrew Skowron. The second features a photo essay by Kelly Fogel, paintings by Lori Menna responding to those photographs, and work by Traer Scott.
  • Times Square Subway Station — a popup gallery presented with Whitebox, anchored by Martin Wittfooth’s reimagining of Zurbarán’s “Agnus Dei” (“The Lamb of God”), with a lamb painting cutout by Adrienne Pratt, a lamb sculpture by Ilaria, fashion design by Emma Bautista, performance by Shay Salehi, and a sheep plush by Andrea Fischer.
  • 17 and 30 Avenue A — two companion murals presented with the LISA Project by the anonymous artist Praxis, painted so the same scene can be viewed from two perspectives.
  • Kaliner Gallery, 42 Allen Street, Lower East Side — a lamb painting by Barbara Ishikura, shown within her larger exhibition.
  • Brooklyn Art Haus, 24 Marcy Avenue, Williamsburg — work by Sue Coe and Dana Ellyn’s painting “Wool Over Your Eyes.”

Each installation features a QR code linking to the campaign, where visitors can add their name to the call for Michael Kors to be more transparent about their wool sourcing.

Counting Sheep’s eighteen artists are photojournalists, painters, muralists, sculptors and designers, most of whom had never worked together before this project: Alex Aliume, Emma Bautista, Sue Coe, Kelly Dinham, Dana Ellyn, Andrea Fischer, Kelly Fogel, Aitor Garmendia, Ilaria, Barbara Ishikura, Jo- Anne McArthur, Lori Menna, Praxis, Adrienne Pratt, Shay Salehi, Traer Scott, Andrew Skowron and Martin Wittfooth.

“Phosphorescent paint holds light after the source is gone. I wanted to make something that works that way — this piece only completes itself in darkness,” says Alex Aliume, whose luminescent paintings fill his East Williamsburg gallery. “My painting for this project, the sheep’s eye, creates a direct encounter with another living being. Something intimate that asks the viewer to look back, observe, and recognize consciousness beyond our own.”

“I’ve been photographing our relationship with animals since 1998, in more than sixty countries,” says Jo-Anne McArthur, photojournalist and founder of We Animals. “What I keep coming back to is how much of it happens where nobody can see it.”

Effective alternatives are available, and brands face a straightforward choice: keep the issue at arm’s length or take a stand, by committing to certified wool free from live lamb cutting.

A full map of the installations is available at www.fourpawsusa.org/countingsheep. All locations are free and open to the public from today through September 16.

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FOUR PAWS is the global animal welfare organization for animals under direct human influence, which reveals suffering, rescues animals in need and protects them. Founded in 1988 in Vienna by Heli Dungler and friends, the organization advocates for a world where humans treat animals with respect, empathy and understanding. The sustainable campaigns and projects of FOUR PAWS focus on companion animals including stray dogs and cats, farm animals and wild animals – such as bears, big cats and orangutans – kept in inappropriate conditions as well as in disaster and conflict zones. With offices in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, France, Germany, Kosovo, the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, the UK, the USA and Vietnam as well as 13 wild animal sanctuaries and cooperation projects across the globe, FOUR PAWS provides rapid help and long-term solutions. 

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