After the Jackson Town Council eliminated a policy that allowed an anti-wool-sloganed sheep statue on the Town Square, an animal-rights group said it will monitor the community for First Amendment violations before deciding on legal action.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals installed its town-permitted “unattended display” in the town-center park last week in an effort to raise awareness about what it said was violent and abusive treatment of stock.
The chest-high faux ruminant — which is adorned with cartoon slogans vilifying wool growing and mutton munching — had barely begun to chew its cud when the town council eliminated its ordinance that had allowed the display.
The council axed the unattended display regulation May 5, citing worries about pedestrian congestion, “potential damage to the turf,” staff time and other reasons.
The square “is on the national historical register,” Jackson Town Attorney Lea Colasuonno told the council, “and maintaining it in attractive and intact condition is a high interest of the town.”
PETA pushed back. “We do think that it’s vital to have free and open forums — not just restricted ones — available to express points of view that encourage compassionate action,” PETA Media Officer Sara Groves wrote WyoFile in an email. “We will wait to see what happens in Jackson before deciding whether to pursue legal action on behalf of all Americans who wish to be heard.”
The statue, named “E(n)d Shearin’” after a British musician who voiced an animated character in a Disney film, will remain on the square until May 18, but may not be allowed to pasture there again.
First Amendment
“E(n)d Shearin’” drew little attention on Saturday evening, didn’t congest the boardwalks around the landmark elk antler arches and appeared to damage little turf when a WyoFile reporter visited the site. The statue stood across Center Street from Jackson Hole Pendleton, a store offering goods from the renowned Oregon wool company.
Perhaps two in 10 passersby paid attention to the slogans from a Barry Blitt cartoon that are inked on “E(n)d Shearin’s” side; “TRY A HUMAN CHOP!, I’M NOT YOUR SOCKS!” and so-on.
A woman in a flowing summer dress, a guy in a silk disco shirt, a cowboy toting a Stetson hat box, a tourist couple in town for a couple of days all passed by.
“Didn’t really notice it,” one tourist said. “I’ve got no problem with it,” said a visitor from Virginia. One exasperated resident likened shearing to a haircut before passing “E(n)d Shearin’” without a sideways glance.
“PETA’s main goal is to educate people about the cruel wool industry so they will reconsider buying products made from wool,” PETA Media Officer Groves’ email reads. “[S]o we’re pleased that our statue is making people realize facts about wool that they likely never thought about, including that sheep are prey animals who are deeply scared when pinned down to be shorn; that PETA investigations have repeatedly shown that sheep are manhandled and sliced to pieces when shorn, sometimes even losing part of an ear or a teat to the blade; and that they emerge from or are kicked out of the shearing shed trembling in fear.”
Pendleton endorses ethical treatment of animals as Wyoming Wool Growers Association reportedly does.
Jackson Mayor Arne Jorgensen dismissed notions that the town created a First-Amendment violation. “I don’t see how there would be,” he said.
“I’m not sure what we have done to them that limited their First-Amendment rights,” he said of the town council action. Cancellation of the “unattended display” ordinance of 2013 was not due to the content of the PETA statue, he said.
There’s no prohibition against statues on the Town Square, he said, just rescission of the policy allowing staffers to issue permits for temporary installations.
Regarding future proposals for unattended displays and possible new rules, “we’ve not had this discussion,” Jorgensen said.
Free-speech suits
The legal saber rattling recalls contentious First Amendment history for both PETA and the town. Both have been embroiled in free-speech lawsuits that resulted in significant monetary settlements.
In 2014, Jackson settled a federal lawsuit brought by anti-abortion protesters that resulted in a $225,000 payment to the demonstrators.
The legal skirmish came after the town in 2011 obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting Operation Save America from protesting near the town square. The protest was planned during the Boy Scouts’ annual Elkfest, when elk antlers are sold as a kickoff to the summer tourist season.
The town feared that Operation Save America would expose 200 Boy Scouts to disturbing images on graphic anti-abortion protest signs — and also disrupt the peace.
Although a judge prevented the protest, police arrested Kansas Pastor Mark Hollick for violating the court order, prompting Operation Save America to sue. The parties agreed to the settlement in Operation Save America’s favor, with much of the money coming from a state liability pool protecting public officials.
PETA, too, has aggressively guarded its First Amendment rights, winning $35,000 from the Southwest Regional Airport in Rock Springs after officials there refused to sell the group advertising space criticizing leather luggage. PETA sued the airport in 2024. “[R]ather than allowing the ad to run, the airport … quickly scrambled to create a set of policy guidelines to justify rejecting it,” PETA said.
The parties settled the matter in 2025. The airport paid PETA’s legal fees — again covered by insurance — and agreed to sell the organization advertising space in the same manner it did others.
PETA’s “E(n)d Shearin’” campaign began in 2024 in San Angelo, Texas, once called the Wool Capitol of the World. PETA claimed a free-speech victory there when it fought, and won, the right to display “E(n)d Shearin.’”
“PETA’s legal team secured placement for ‘‘E(n)d Shearin’’ even though the Public Art Commission recommended that city officials reject the statue apparently because of its anti-wool viewpoint — which lawyers argued was a violation of the group’s First Amendment rights,” the group posted on its website.However faux “E(n)d Shearin’” might be, he bucks a historic Jackson Hole prejudice against his kind. During settlement, valley cattlemen strongly discouraged sheepherders and warned them to stay out of the area, posting signs and even escorting invading herds back over the hills.
Sheep are smart, social individuals who can remember dozens of faces for over two years – even from photographs! – and will stick up for friends in fights. Choosing soft and cozy vegan wools is a kind and easy way to let sheep live in peace.
The statue isn’t exaggerating. Sheep are gentle, social animals who feel pain and fear, but the wool industry treats them like machines because there’s money to be made from their bodies. If left alone, sheep would grow only enough wool to protect themselves—but they’re bred to overproduce fleece and then shorn fast and roughly because shearers are paid by volume. Investigations have documented sheep punched, stomped on, cut to ribbons, and sewn up without pain relief, and practices like mulesing that remove chunks of skin without anesthesia. A peaceful statue asking people to think about that isn’t the problem. The cruelty we’ve normalized is.