Clothing

Fur

Anti-fur campaigns are some of the longest running campaigns of both animal rights and animal welfare activists, and for good reason. To obtain animal pelts for fur-skin coats, rugs and any other thing you care to think of animals may either be farmed or captured in the wild - in both cases, they endure horrific cruelty, pain and suffering.

Fur farms may closely resemble factory farms where animals are raised for their flesh - conscious, sentient beings such as minks and chinchillas are kept locked in tiny, filthy cages with no mental stimulation and nothing resembling their natural environment. Food is poor quality, water is dirty, artificial heating and lighting is used - simply put, this is not a pleasant existence. Whilst death may provide a final respite for these animals, allowing them to be free from their on-going agony, it often doesn't come quickly. A number of methods are used to slaughter the animals but it is always important that their pelt be undamaged otherwise it will be of lower value; after slaughtering the skin is literally peeled from the animals' body like peeling a banana but in some horrific cases there is video footage capturing animals that have been skinned alive and can survive for as long as 10 minutes. The pain these animals endure is something that we simply cannot imagine and for what? So someone can prance down the runway in Milan with another animals' skin draped over their body.

Being captured in the wild to become a floor covering is not much fun either. Although not so widely used now leg-hold traps do still exist and they are just as cruel and painful as they ever were. Animals caught in these horrible contraptions are often left to suffer for days until the hunter comes back to check his trap and if in this time they haven't died of exposure, dehydration or by trying to gnaw their own limb off, they will be killed in any number of horrific ways from being shot to stamped on.

Anyone buying a mink coat also runs the risk of actually being dressed up in a distant relative of their beloved family pet - in a number of Asian countries the stray dog and cat problem is beyond anything you can imagine and, consequently, many of these unfortunate animals end up being used for their fur, which is then sold overseas to unsuspecting consumers.

It is not difficult to make and keep a pledge to go fur-free for the rest of your life - faux fur is now very widely available and in addition to the obvious benefits that it doesn't not result in the cruel slaughter of millions of innocent creatures each year, it is a whole lot cheaper than the real deal. Faux fur can be just as warm as, and look identical to real fur and it by purchasing it you really will be making a difference - over 100 chinchillas are required to make a single full length coat. If you have fur products in your home and suddenly don't like the thought of wearing or walking on what is essentially the outer covering of a carcass, you can donate them to your local animal shelter, providing homeless animals with a lovely warm bed. You can choose not to buy anything from clothing shops that sell fur products, making sure to let them know your stance and informing them that they will regain your patronage as soon as the carcass covers leave their shelves. And, as always, SPEAK OUT! Tell your friends, your neighbours, the girl next to you on the bus, write letters to the newspaper and to clothing manufacturers. The more people who know the horrors of fur, the fewer who will consider it fashionable to drape themselves in it!

For more information on fur, a great place to start is www.furisdead.com.

Wool

The majority of people are of the opinion that since shearing removes only the wool from the outside of a sheep's body (supposedly) not injuring the animal, it is a perfectly humane practice. This sadly is not the case - especially here in Australia, sheep suffer unimaginable pain simply so that humans can wear scarves and sleep under blankets made of their wool.

Sheep, who originated in cold, mountainous Europe, are not suited to the 40°C + temperatures that they must endure in the barren Australian outback - particularly the popular Merino breed with its huge rolls of skin and thick wool. Another critically important fact is that there is no such thing as a Blowfly in Great Britain so sheep run no risk of suffering the horrible condition known as flystrike, in which flies burrow into the animals skin and lay their eggs, leaving the sheep with a painful and ultimately fatal maggot infestation. We know the incredible suffering that comes with this condition and by no means do we want to see an animal having to endure that, however, we believe that the current 'solution' to this problem is anything but. Farmers perform a practice known as mulesing, which involves placing a lamb on its back and restraining in some fashion (eg with metal bars) whilst using shears to crudely cut chunks of flesh from the area around its bottom and tail, known as its breech. This is performed with no anaesthetic/analgesic and no follow-up pain relief, leading to many lambs dieing as a result of infection - also, the open wound commonly attracts the very predator that mulesing is trying to avoid, the blowfly.

Not only is mulesing clearly a cruel practice, research has shown that a number of alternatives can actually be considerably more useful in preventing flystrike, especially as blowfly infestation can occur on other areas of the body that are ignored by mulesing. Some of the best alternatives include:

selective breeding for strike-resistant sheep. This is a more long-term solution but could prove very worthwhile. A 1990s study (2) found that only 8 percent of 1-year-old resistant sheep suffered from fleece-rot (a condition that predisposes sheep to flystrike), as compared to 53 percent of susceptible sheep. This would also save the farmers money in the long run as they would no longer need to pay for people to come and perform the mulesing, plus they would suffer less stock losses due to infected wounds from mulesing.
vaccinations. Another study (1) conclusively showed that sheep can be vaccinated against infestation by blowfly larvae (maggots), with unvaccinated sheep proving twice as likely to contract flystrike as vaccinated ones.
topical applications. As you read this, researchers at Adelaide University SA are working on topical creams that alter the follicles in the skin of sheep and actually prevents wool growth. This would produce the exact same result as mulesing - a large patch of bare skin, less susceptible to flystrike than areas covered with wool - but without the extreme pain and suffering.

There are now many synthetic alternatives to wool that are cheaper, longer lasting and warmer, not to mention the fact that they don't cause immense unnecessary pain and suffering to thousands of Australian sheep. For more information, other alternatives, ways you can help and more, an excellent site is www.savethesheep.com.

Silk

Few people associate silk with animal cruelty, however the suffering of hundreds of thousands of silkworms is inherent in the production of clothing, sheets and anything else made of silk - 1 pound of silk requires the death of 3000 silkworms. Like any backyard moth or butterfly, silkworms have a number of life stages including spending considerable time within a cocoon - it is from this that the silk is derived. To extract the worms from their cocoons, they may be steamed, gassed or boiled - most people don't think of a silkworm as something worth getting excited about, since it is neither cute nor cuddly, but the fact is that they can still suffer pain.

The simplest way you can help silkworms is by refraining from buying any silk products - there are plenty of cheaper, hardier, cruelty-free alternatives to silk that can be easily (and guiltlessly) obtained. Spread the word to friends and family and, if you're feeling especially keen, contact any stores you know of that stock silk products and ask them to remove these products and stop supporting the cruel silk industry.