Quick Read! Animal Mistreatment and Ethical Alternatives in the Fashion Industry

For those who would like a summary of the last article surrounding the use of animals in fashion, here is a quick read of the key points and ways to help!

Materials used in the industry that are sourced from animals and alternatives you can use; (information sourced from https://goodonyou.eco/ )

1. Leather → sourced largely from cows, leather can also come from; cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, crocodiles, snakes, stingrays, seals, emus, kangaroos, horses and more. The ethical issues; many of these animals are trapped in confined cages and painfully mistreated. A large portion of the leather sourced comes from countries where there is little-to-no animal welfare legislation such as India and China.

Ethical alternatives; vegan leather is readily more available now if you wish to buy new leather, however a great alternative is purchasing second-hand leather from second-hand sellers or charity shops.

2. Wool → sourced from sheep, wool can have similar ethical concerns to leather. The ethical issues; concerns regarding their living conditions and mistreatment when being sheared. Australia, a country that produces large amounts of wool, has been under scrutiny for their practice of ‘muslesing’, which involves cutting flesh from the sheep’s behind without anesthetic in order to prevent fly-strike (which is a common problem for sheep in hotter climates).

Ethical alternatives; as with leather buying second-hand wool is a great way to reduce your carbon-footprint and give old clothes some new appreciation. Alternatively, buying from brands that use non-mulesed wool is a great way to reduce the mistreatment of sheep.

3. Fur and exotic animal skins → sourced from; rabbits, minks, goats, foxes, dogs and cats, crocodiles, alpacas and llamas. The ethical issues; these animals can be subjected to live skinning, be kept in extreme cramped conditions and be mistreated through electrocutions and beatings, just to name a few.

Ethical alternatives; buying second-hand fur or recycled fur means that more animals do not have to be subjected to the same mistreatment as others or you can buy faux-fur, but be mindful that this is not mislabeled as some companies have labelled a piece of clothing as ‘faux-fur’ when in fact it was animal fur.

4. Down (feathers) → sourced from; ducks, geese and swans. The ethical issues; due to the high demand for down, the birds are often subjected to live plucking (as their feathers can grow back again like hair), can be kept in cramped conditions and suffer from injuries such as broken limbs in order to escape the pain of the live plucking.

Ethical alternatives; buy from brands who have pledged not to source from live-plucked birds or, as before, buy vegan or second-hand down clothing.

5. Silk → sourced from; silkworms. The ethical issues; the cocoons (which contains the silkworm) are often placed into boiling water while the silkworm is still alive.

Ethical alternatives; buy from brands who have pledged to not source from live-boiling sources. Silk is a little harder in sourcing ethically purely because there is very limited regulations and legislation protecting the welfare of the silkworms. However, buying second-hand silk is a great alternative and healthy for the environment.

These 5 materials regularly used in the fashion industry each present a worrisome display of mistreatment of the animals that they are sourcing from. However, there are some ethical alternatives for each material.

Other ways in which you can help include; keeping up-to-date on the animal welfare campaign (PETA is a good website for this https://www.peta.org/ ) or you can sign petitions or donate to organisations that try to help protect animals and create new legislation in their favour. (the petition from the last article http://chng.it/bph4Pxrn7m is a great one to have a look into).