Animals in fashion,
everything you need to know.

The fashion industry is changing all around us. Fur farming has been banned in many countries including The Netherlands, Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, among others and there are calls to ban the importation of fur into the UK. H&M has just announced a new collection using vegan cactus leather and ASOS have dropped clothing made from cashmere, mohair and silk. But why? 

This is a round-up of some of the most common animal-derived clothing and the reality of what these industries are like.

Leather

In 2014, an undercover expose revealed that in China dog and cat skin was being exported under the pretence of it being cow skin - causing public outrage and congressional interest in the US. However, how is wearing dog and cat skin any different from wearing the skin of any other animal?

Every year 1.4 billion animals including cows, water buffalos, sheep, goats, kangaroos and pigs are killed for leather and although they are just as sentient and suffer the same as dogs and cats, no one bats an eye.

Leather is often made from the skin of cattle who have been used for their milk and flesh, with animal agriculture organisations referring to leather as a co-product.  This means that by buying leather we are supporting industries that forcibly impregnate animals, separate babies from their mothers, perform mutilations such as castration, tail-docking, ear tagging and branding and that then force the animals on to trucks to take them to a slaughterhouse where they will have their throats cut. 

Even in India, where cows are perceived to be treated differently, the reality is cattle are transported from areas where it is illegal for them to be slaughtered to areas where it is legal. This involves the animals having chillis rubbed in their eyes and their tails broken in order to get them to keep moving and heading towards the place where they will be slaughtered. 

In the Indian state of Rajasthan, which has the only government cow department to look after freely roaming sacred cows, there are hundreds of tanneries that process cattle skin.

India is actually the second-largest exporter of leather with only China producing more. 

So-called ‘exotic leather’ comes from animals such as alligators, armadillos, snakes and ostriches, among others. These are animals who are also sentient and suffer, and yet they are mutilated, exploited and then bludgeoned, shot, or have their spinal cords severed using a mallet and chisel, just so we can take their skin.  

Furthermore, companies don’t have to state where the raw leather has come from, so even if we buy a leather product that says ‘made in Italy’, that means nothing when it comes to where the animal skin originally came from. 

And it is important to note that regardless of where the animal skin has come from, an animal has had their throat cut and their life taken from them needlessly. There is no leather without death.

The conditions in tanneries, where humans work to produce and dye leather are often also terrible, especially in lower-income nations like Bangladesh and India where even children can be found standing barefooted in toxic tanning chemicals like arsenic and chromium, dying pieces of leather that are later sold in places like Europe and the US. Studies have shown how all these chemicals lead to an increased risk of developing cancer and skin diseases. 

On top of that, millions of gallons of untreated water loaded with animal parts, dyes and chemicals are often pumped into open channels polluting the already polluted water streams that people depend on.

And even in more affluent countries, studies have shown higher rates of cancer among tannery workers in places such as Italy, the US and Sweden, with the rates of cancer being as much as 50 per cent higher.

It’s commonly believed that wearing leather is sustainable and ethical because we’re often already killing the animals, so we might as well use their skin as well. However, not only are some cattle killed exclusively for their skin, but due to the carcinogenic chemicals and the processing required to turn flesh into leather, it would still be more sustainable to just let the skin biodegrade, and doing so would also reduce water pollution and remove the serious human health and rights implications that occur during the tanning process.

And on the point of the environmental impact, the landmark Pulse of the Fashion Industry cradle-to-gate analysis, which was conducted in 2017 and analysed the environmental impact of the main fabrics used to produce clothes from the beginning of the process until the transportation, revealed that leather is the least sustainable material, with synthetic leather having half the environmental impact of animal skin leather. This also doesn’t include more pioneering materials such as apple leather, cactus leather and pineapple leather which are reportedly even more sustainable.

Wool

Over 367 million animals are exploited for wool each year, with the vast majority being sheep. Because the industry pays per kilo of wool, not per hour, farmers and shearers are incentivised to work as fast as possible.

An investigation of more than 30 shearing sheds in the US and Australia caught shearers punching, kicking, and stomping on sheep, hitting them in the face with electric clippers and standing on their heads, necks, and legs. It was a similar story in the UK, where an investigation into 25 shearing sheds showed animals being stamped on, kicked, slammed and choked, among other things. The sheep are treated so brutally that they are cut open by the process and the shearers then sew them back up without any pain relief at all

However, even legal standard practices involve suffering. Sheep who are used for wool are also often used for breeding. This process in many countries, such as Australia, is carried out artificially. The insemination involves the farmer getting semen from a ram and then clamping a ewe down on to a trolly before two incisions are made into her pelvic region, which the farmer then uses to insert the semen inside of her.

Once the lambs have been born they will have mutilations performed on them, such as castration, tail docking and disbudding and ultimately slaughter, as contrary to what many people believe, all sheep raised for their wool are also killed for their flesh as well, when they are no longer deemed profitable which is often when they are around five or six years old. There is no wool without slaughter. 

We have selectively bred sheep to produce excessive amounts of wool. Normally in the wild, sheep would shed their wool during the warmer months, however, we have altered these animals in order to maximise the amount of money that can be made from them.

Because of this, farmers in Australia will carry out a process called mulesing, where they cut pieces of skin and flesh from the sheep’s tail and hind legs. This is done to reduce the risk of flystrike, an issue where flies lay eggs in the faeces that can get caught in the excessive amount of wool that the sheep have been selectively bred to have.

Australia, China and the US are the biggest producers of wool, producing 60 per cent of the world’s wool between them. When it comes to merino wool, Australia is responsible for 50 per cent of the world’s production. 

As for the environmental cost, the Pulse of the Fashion Industry analysis ranked wool as the fourth most damaging fabric. And when we think about it, we are routinely being shown that red meat is the most environmentally damaging food, yet we’re also told that leather and wool are sustainable, and yet the systems of farming are the same for both.

Fur

Every year around 1 billion animals are killed for their fur, with over 95 per cent of fur coming from farmed animals.

Animals most commonly used for their fur include foxes, minks, chinchillas, rabbits and dogs. The largest producers of fur are Denmark, Poland and China, however, the standard practices are nearly always the same.

The animals are packed into tiny cages, with little to no room to move. This is where they will spend their entire lives. Inevitably the animals suffer psychologically and will bite each other and cannibalise, as well as hurt themselves and self mutilate in unimaginably horrible ways.

All animals raised for their fur are slaughtered, as that’s the only way fur farmers can get the fur. This applies to mink eyelashes as well, even though there is a common misconception that mink are just shaved.

Common forms of slaughter involve gassing, poisons, decompression chambers, neck cutting and neck-breaking. For larger animals, they are commonly killed by being held down with clamps before then having electric prods inserted in their mouths and anuses to cause death by cardiac fibrillation. Research has shown that the animals can remain conscious for 30 seconds after, in which time they are forced to suffer a heart attack while they are still conscious. It has also been exposed that animals can be skinned alive on fur farms as well.

As well as fur farms, millions of wild animals are trapped and killed for fur each year, including seals, who are often clubbed to death, and bobcats and coyotes who are typically captured with steel leg traps before then being shot.

There is also fur from Angora rabbits, which is acquired by farmers hand plucking the fur from live rabbits, which causes them to scream in pain. The rabbits are hand plucked rather than shaved as the farmers can obtain longer fibres and make more money from the animals. This process of live-plucking is standard practice for the industry all around the world.

Down

Over 840 million duck and geese are used each year for down production. China is the largest producer, creating about 80 per cent of the supply of down feathers. 

Investigations have shown that birds are often live-plucked, a process that involves them being pinned down or held tightly and then having their feathers ripped off them. Live-plucked birds are kept alive longer so they can be plucked several times, which means the farmers can make more money from them and the down clusters actually get larger as a result. These farms were also reportedly linked to suppliers who claim that they don’t source from live-plucked animals.

It has also been exposed in the past that foie gras farmers can also make extra money by selling the feather’s of the birds they are force-feeding, meaning that by buying down we could in turn also be supporting the foie-gras industry. 

Ultimately, all birds raised for their feathers are killed when they are no longer deemed profitable enough to keep alive. 

Silk

Silk is the fibre that makes up the cocoons of silkworms. In nature, the silkworm goes through the same stages of metamorphosis—egg, larval, pupal, and adult—that all moths do. 

However, the silk used in the fashion industry comes from domesticated silkworms that aren’t allowed to go through all of their natural stages. Most of the insects raised by the industry are boiled, steamed or gassed alive inside their cocoons so we can use the cocoons’ fibre without damaging it.

Silkworms have also been selectively bred to have larger cocoon sizes and higher growth rate. Even though they have been bred this way, it still takes about 3,000 silkworms to produce one pound of silk. This means we kill somewhere in the region of one trillion silkworms every single year. 

And according to the Pulse of the Fashion Industry report, silk is the second least sustainable fabric, due to its global warming potential and use of fossil fuels.

When it comes to animal-derived clothing, the suffering, exploitation and death of sentient beings is an intrinsic and inevitable part of the production. These animals live horrible lives and then are slaughtered. Which leads to the question, with so many alternatives available, can it really be justified?

- Ed Winters is Surge Co-Founder & Co-Director
earthlinged.org @earthlinged

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