Minks, foxes, and chinchillas usually come to mind when the topic appears, but countless other species are also exploited. From the smallest silkworm to the largest lama, animals used for clothing suffer and pay with their lives.
Astrakhan is a type of expensive lamb skin with curly black or gray hair from newly born lambs or their fetuses. The lamb’s skin from babies is gouged from the first to the third day after birth. The skin of newborn lambs basically consists of leguminous curls. After the third day, however, with hair growth, the curls begin to break and form a coarse type of wool. To obtain the skin of the karakul fetus (called “broadtail”), the throat of the mother is cut off and the abdomen is opened to extract the unborn lamb. Fetus skin is highly appreciated for its smoothness, so imagine how many pregnant mothers have to be killed so that they can make a coat from their unborn babies. Designer Stella McCartney has likened wearing it to “wearing a fetus.” Every year, about 4 million lambs are killed.
Seal skin
Hundreds of thousands of seals are killed each year for fur, meat, butter (sold as a health supplements), and penises (used for aphrodisiacs in Asian markets). The majority of them are hunted in Canada, however, seals are currently being hunted in nine countries total: Canada, the United States, Namibia, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Finland and Sweden. The Canadian Ministry of Fisheries and the Oceans (DFO) regulates seals hunting in Canada. It sets quotas, tracks hunting, surveys seal populations, works with the Canadian Seal Hunters Association to train seal hunters, new norms, and promotes seal hunting through its website and speakers. The DFO has set quotas for 90,000 seals in 2007; 275,000 in 2008; 280,000 in 2009; and 330,000 in 2010. Actual killings in recent years are less than the quotas: 82,800 in 2007; 217,800 in 2008; 72,400 in 2009; and 67,000 in 2010.
Smaller seals are usually killed with sticks or hakapik (a pickaxe-like weapon). Older seals are usually shot from a rifle distance. Some seals do not die instantly and manage to escape hunters to die in slow and painful death.
Murder of babies
Canadian seal hunting takes place during the seasons when babies are born. Killing babies with white hides in commercial hunting was forbidden. However, there are no rules against killing them for “personal use” or killing their mothers. When babies are 12-days-old and lose their baby’s skin, they can be killed for the commercial network. Most of the killed seals are under one year of age. Many seals are still alive and in full consciousness during this. In 2007, Norway stated that 29,000 Greenland seals were killed, Russia claimed that 5,479 seals had been killed, and Greenland claimed 90,000 seals were killed. At the end of the 1960s, populations of Greenland seals in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean have fallen to about 2 million as a result of annual killings in Canada, which averaged over 291,000 from 1952 to 1970. Lastly, a new set of rules was introduced that limited the catch to 400 seals per day and 2,000 per ship in total. A 2007 study conducted by DFO estimates the population of 5.5 million. It is illegal in Canada to hunt new-born Greenland seals (white-haired) and young hooded seals. When young seals begin to change their tender white coat at the age of 12 to 14 days, they are called a “shaggy jacket” and can be hunted commercially.
Leather farms
These are farms in which the animals are kept only for skin. Once the skins have been skinned, the rest of the bodies are not used and are discarded. The most commonly grown animal in fur farms is mink. Other animals used for the skin include: foxes, rabbits, chinchillas, beavers, lynx, badgers, otters, dogs, coyotes, raccoons, beetles, samurai, squirrels and other rodents. There are a lot of fur farms that can be found in Europe. Animals are kept in small narrow cells, causing tremendous emotional and physical stress. They are fed with meat by-products and water is provided by a system that often freezes in winter.
Killing methods
Methods of killing farms are terrible. They use different methods to kill animals without damaging their skin. Small animals can be put in boxes and poisoned by the hot engine of a truck. Larger animals have clamps attached to their lips and sticks placed in their anus and have an electric current. Other common methods of killing used on farms are gas chambers, door breaks and decompression chambers. Not all of these methods always effectively kill the animals, and some animals “wake up” as this process takes place. It is a common practice in many countries to die without being killed while they are still alive. That is, in consciousness, without anesthesia, and after being skinned, they are thrown away to agonize – slowly and painfully. The skin comes from an extremely cruel leather industry.
“There is nothing modern in a dead animal that was cruelly killed just because some people think they look cool.” – Stella McCartney, fashion designer.
Traps
Traps are also used to capture animals. When animals are trapped, it may take days before the hunter finds them. About 1 in 4 caught animals has avoided being captured by chewing their own foot or paw. The fugitive animals will die because of bleeding, fever, or they will be killed by a predator. The trap does not only capture animals suitable for skin. Up to 50% of the captured animals are discarded as “waste animals.” This includes many domestic cats and dogs.
Dogs and cats
Although the production of precious cat and dog fur in Europe is banned, this does not mean that it cannot be realized elsewhere, such as China. Every day millions of dogs and cats are killed in the Chinese leather industry. Do you have Chinese leather products? If so, they are very likely to be from dogs and cats. When American and European consumers are shopping for leather goods, they probably do not get into their minds that their new belts, bags or shoes may not be made from cows or pigs, but from cats and dogs. But this is not only a probability, it is difficult for consumers to know exactly what leather their leather products are made of. Almost all dog or cat skin comes from China. Italy, France, Denmark, Greece, Belgium and Australia ban the import of domestic cat and dog fur, but the sale is still so to say legal. In most countries, articles made of cat and dog fur are available in the form of toys for animals or as decoration of clothing such as boots, jackets and bags. Now, the changes in Chinese culture, the greater pressure from the United States and the forthcoming trade agreement are combined to cut off this smuggling trade. The US banned the import of dog and cat skin, which is fined up to $ 10,000 as part of the Dog and Kitty Protection Act of 2000. But the elimination of dog and cat skin from cows, sheep and pigs is an easy task that allows unscrupulous producers to transmit skin from dogs and cats as leather from legally allowed animals. According to a report by the Congress’s research office in 2014, the US is importing $8.5 billion in leather goods from China. It is not known how much of the total amount annually is dog or cat’s skin. Dog and cat’s skin contamination reached new heights in 2014 when an undercover investigator working for Peta Asia found that dogs were killed for mass production of hides in China. According to PETA, employees reported that 100-200 dogs were killed there daily and confirmed that the leather received was intended for export and sale to the US market. Of course, it would be naive if you think Chinese leather goods do not come to the European market. Graphic footage made by PETA Asia shows how dogs are squeezed before their throats are cut and their skin is gulped while still alive.
Millions of Kangaroos are killed every year and their skins are often used for soccer shoes. Although the Australian government requires hunters to shoot on animals, orphaned small kangaroos and wounded adults, according to the government, should be decapitated or shot in the head “to destroy the brain.” After learning about these brutal methods of murder, football star David Beckham changed his footwear made from synthetic material in 2006, and Adidas stopped using kangaroo leather shoes in 2012.
Cow leather
The world’s largest producer and exporter of cow’s leather is India. We all know that in India the cow is a sacred animal and a great honor. But all this, apparently respect and protection, conceals the trade in cows and cow products, which involves incredible barbarity and cruelty. Much of the abuse stems from the fact that the trade and slaughter of cows is almost completely illegal – but the authorities who have to stop it are regularly bribed to continue it. Therefore, there is no control or regulation of trade anywhere along the line. Although the Hindus hold the cow with special respect investigations show that all major communities in India are accomplices in the cruelty to cows. Hindu farmers allow their cows to be taken for slaughter and Muslims kill them using primitive techniques in terrible conditions. Hindus, Jainists, Sikhs, Muslims, and Christians all win. Thanks to the lobbying of Hindu nationalists, cow slaughter is banned in all Indian states and territories except West Bengal, the northeast and Kerala in the far south. The result is secret slaughterhouses located at the edges of the country, especially in the Muslim districts of the cities.
“There is huge trafficking in cattle both in West Bengal and Kerala,” said Ms. Gandi, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment and Veteran in the fight against the abuse of animals of all kinds. “Those who go to West Bengal travel by truck and train and go to the millions. The law says you cannot transport more than four, but they make up to 70. When traveling by train, each wagon is supposed to withstand 80 to 100 cattle, but they push up to 900. I saw 900 cows coming out of the wagon train, and 400 to 500 of them went dead.”
“Even more terrifying is the transport of cows to slaughterhouses to the Kerala border,” Mrs. Gandhi added. “On their way to Kerala, they do not travel by lorries or trains: they are tied and beaten and forced to walk from 7 to 9 km per day. All slaughterhouses in Kerala are at the border. As they walked and walked and walked, the livestock lost too much weight to increase the weight and the amount of money they would get, so traffickers make them drink water with copper sulphate that destroys the kidneys and makes it impossible for them to pass through water – so when they are weighed, they have 15 kg of water inside them and are in extreme agony. ”
Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, followed one of the cattle caravans stumbling over to Kerala.
“It’s a terrible journey,” she wrote in the upcoming issue of Animal Times, the magazine of PETA. “In order to move, the drivers beat the animal on the hips where there is no fat. Cows are not allowed to rest or drink. Many get swelling on their knees. The leaders beat them and force them to stand up.”
“If that does not work, they torture the cows to move, rubbing hot red pepper and tobacco in their eyes. When they finally get to the slaughterhouses on the border with Kerala, the end they face is inexpressible,” said Ms. Gandhi. “In Kerala, they also have a unique way of killing them – they hit a dozen beats with a hammer on their heads.”
To make a coat, about 300 chinchillas, 8 seals, 60 minks, 250 squirrels, 20 foxes, 8 dogs, 30 cats, 6 leopards, 2 cheetahs, 3 snow leopards (burbel), 30 beavers, 17 Bobcats and 12 wolves would be needed.
What can we do?
We can stop buying fur and leather products. Nowadays, there are so many alternatives that are quality filled and are created without murder and cruelty. Almost everywhere we shop, we can find a wide selection of jackets, shoes and accessories made of materials such as cotton, flax, ramie, jute and synthetics. The best designers also use fiberglass, polyvinyl chloride and pleather.