The past few winters have been full of many things. Snow, wind, freezing cold temperatures, and of course Uggs. In case you don’t know, Uggs have been the latest trend in footwear for the past two or so years. If you’ve walked to halls of any high school in America, you’re likely to find at least 20 pairs of Uggs within a ten foot radius. They’re known for their appealing style and extreme soft insides.  I mean, who doesn’t want a pair of ultra-soft boots? However, do you know what makes your Ugg boots so soft?

Let’s start off by saying that Ugg has covered this up for a long time. Up until recently, I didn’t even know about the cruelty that went into the making of Ugg boots. I’m guilty of having begged for a pair two years ago. However, when animal right activist groups such as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) spoke out about this issue, I didn’t think they were so cute anymore. Hopefully you’ll understand why.

So, what does give Ugg boots their signature softness? According to PETA, the softness comes from sheep, rabbits, foxes, etc. Let’s focus on the sheep. This is what most of their boots are made out of. Each year hundreds of sheep are skinned for their wool to be put inside these boots. Not sheered, skinned. First they’re thrown into trucks that are way too small to fit a dozen or so sheep and are sent on their way to the farm. These animals then get their throats slit and the skin is then taken off of their backs to be stuck on the inside of those “oh-so-cute” Ugg boots. They are then sent off for a slaughterhouse. If you think this is bad, these animals are abused and neglected for the time between being sent to a factory farm and being slaughtered.

If you’ve seen a factory farm, you know how horrible the treatment of the animals is. These sheep live with hardly enough room to move, let alone eat or sleep. They are beaten and branded with burning hot irons. Many of them suffer from severe burns that can (and often do) get infected. Diseases spread easily in the packed stalls and flies lay their eggs on and around the sheep. Its absolutely disgusting conditions and are extremely unhealthy.

One of the most disturbing things about Ugg is that there are alternatives to this cruelty. There is always fake fur, which they can obviously afford from the extremely high prices of their boots currently. Yet they refuse to switch over and continue to murder innocent animals for what they call “fashion.” So, do you think Uggs are still cute now that you know the ugg-ly truth?