When people think of badgers, they picture their distinctive black-and-white faces, fluffy bodies, and idyllic woodland homes. What most people do not picture is that these intelligent, social animals, like so many others, endure horrific lives of confinement and violence so their bristles can be used in products that could easily be made with synthetic alternatives. Shaving brushes, makeup brushes, and paintbrushes are among the most common items still made with real badger hair.

Recent undercover investigations by PETA Asia exposed shocking cruelty on eight badger farms in China that supply badger hair to the global brush industry. The harrowing footage shows workers beating and stabbing live badgers, terrified animals spinning frantically in barren wire cages from extreme psychological distress, and one badger struggling and bleeding for more than three minutes after being struck on the head but not rendered unconscious before being cut open. In response, major retailers including Neiman Marcus, Ulta, Kohl's, Michaels, and Target stopped selling badger-hair products.

Unfortunately, some brands continue to profit from this cruelty. Among them is luxury shaving brush manufacturer MÜHLE, which sells badger-hair brushes across a range of premium shaving products, with some complete shaving sets retailing for more than $1,500, despite also manufacturing high-quality synthetic shaving brushes that prove animal-derived bristles are entirely unnecessary. Rather than acknowledging the cruelty exposed by investigators, MÜHLE attempted to distance itself from the abuse by claiming that it uses different suppliers and that badger hair is simply a by-product of the badger meat trade.

This argument is deeply misleading. Badger hair is not a worthless by-product. It is a valuable commercial product that generates revenue for the industry, and the cosmetic and shaving brush markets create significant demand for it. Every badger-hair brush sold helps financially sustain an industry built on confining badgers in tiny wire cages, violently killing them, and turning their bodies into luxury consumer goods when compassionate synthetic alternatives already exist.

The short, miserable lives endured by badgers on these farms could not be further from the lives they are meant to lead in the wild. Badgers are highly social animals that live in extended family groups of more than 20 individuals, sharing elaborate underground tunnel systems known as setts that are passed down through generations. Some of these homes have sheltered the same family for centuries and contain hundreds of meters of tunnels with separate chambers for sleeping, giving birth, and eating. Badgers are meticulous animals that even maintain designated bathroom areas outside their homes and regularly replace and air out their bedding.

Confining these intelligent animals to barren wire cages without their families while denying them every opportunity to dig, forage, or express their natural behaviors is profoundly cruel long before they face the violence inflicted upon them for their bristles.

Today, more than 100 companies have abandoned badger hair after repeated undercover investigations exposed the cruelty behind these products. MÜHLE has chosen a different path. Instead of joining the growing number of brands embracing high-performing synthetic alternatives, the company has continued defending the badger-hair trade while profiting from it.

Badgers deserve better than to suffer and die for an outdated luxury product that no one needs.

Take Action Now

Please join Species Unite in urging MÜHLE to stop selling real badger-hair brushes and commit to using only synthetic alternatives.