Major Retailers Remove Badger-Hair Brushes from Sales

Major retailers including Neiman Marcus, Ulta, Kohl’s and Michael’s have removed brushes made from badger hair from their websites over the past two months. Target also began removing third-party listings for paint and shaving brushes made with badger hair after receiving emails from the animal-rights group in April and May.

Target spokesman Brian Harper-Tibaldo said the company is reviewing listings that fall outside its policy against using fur, hair, whiskers or feathers not derived from the food supply chain. A set of three paint brushes priced at $68.32 and men’s shaving brushes were among the items removed from Target’s site.

The animal-rights group sent a five-minute video showing conditions at a badger farm in China to support its requests. The group’s president wrote that high-quality synthetic brushes meet or exceed the performance of animal-hair brushes. The same group’s 2018 investigation led more than 100 companies, including L’Oréal, Schick, Sherwin-Williams, Sephora and Procter & Gamble, to drop badger-hair products.