Animals Used for Clothing
Living, thinking beings are turned into shoes, bags, belts, shawls, sweaters, saris and more – not for need, but for greed. In case you had not noticed, we are not “cave people” – it is the 21st century, and there are plenty of superior stylish alternatives to animal products to choose from.
See our “Wicked Style” section for cruelty-free fashion tips, and click on the following links to learn more:
India is one of the largest leather manufacturers in the world, and its treatment of animals for leather is among the cruellest. See our investigative report on the plight of animals for leather in Tamil Nadu, a major leather-producing state.
The leather industry is also one of the most polluting in the world. Those who live near or work in leather tanneries have higher rates of respiratory and skin infections, cancer and other serious ailments than the rest of the population does. The leather tanneries around the Ganges have been cited for dumping toxins like chromium into the holy river. In the South, nearly 35,000 hectares of agricultural land has been rendered partially or totally unfit for cultivation in the leather-tannery belt, stretching from Vaniyambadi to Ranipet, according to a survey done by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University because of tannery pollution. Almost 30,000 farming families have been affected.
India is the third-largest importer of Australian wool.
Most Australian ranchers perform a barbaric practice called “mulesing”, which involves their forcing live sheep onto their backs, restraining their legs between metal bars and, without using any painkillers, cutting chunks of skin and flesh from around their tail area. This is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that can’t harbour fly eggs, despite the fact that humane alternatives to mulesing exist.
To produce just 100 grams of silk, approximately 1,500 worms are killed. Yeah, we know they’re worms, but worms have feelings too.
Animals raised on farms for fur suffer from confinement and are gassed, electrocuted, strangled and stomped and have their necks broken. Some of these methods are not 100 per cent effective, and many animals “wake up” while being skinned. In India, rabbits are farmed for fur. Fur farming is now banned in parts of Europe.
