|
Abolishing the Status of Animals as Property |
|
► Animals in Clothing |
|
10-Oct-07 |
|
Down is the soft layer of feathers closest to the birds skin., primarily in the chest region. These feathers are highly valued because they do not have quills. Most products labeled “down” contain a combination of these under feathers and other feathers or fillers. Down and feathers can be removed either from live animals or dead animals after slaughter. (see the Food section for information on the raising of birds for foie-gras and meat). The process of plucking down fro live geese and ducks starts at the age of 8 to 10 weeks. ON factory farms, the terrified birds are lifted by their necks or backs, with their legs tied over their backs, and then have all of their body feathers ripped out. The frantic geese and ducks struggle to escape, causing strained muscles and sometimes broken limbs. As much as 5 ounces of feathers and down can be pulled from each bird. This process is repeated every six to eight weeks until the animals are up to four years old. (1) The overcrowding on these farms leads to debilitating injury and disease. Many farms also cut the tips of the animal’s bill off in order to prevent feather pulling. Live plucking is also done on wild birds. In Iceland, more than 6,500 pounds of Eider duck feathers are gathered a year. (2) By taking the feathers from females Eiders, the farmers remove an important insulation that the eggs need to hatch. The feathers from at least 80 nests are required to fill one comforter. (3) Plucking down from live animals is extremely cruel, causing the animals considerable pain and distress. Scientific studies have confirmed the existence of pain receptors (nociceptors) in the skin of ducks and geese (as well as chickens). (4) Researchers have also identified a rich supply of sensory fibers in the follicular wall of the feathers as well as nerves in the papilla, pulp and feather muscles. Feather removal results in tissue injury, along with physiological changes, like the doubling of blood glucose level, a symptom of sever stress. (5, 6) Geese normally live in small family units and mate for life, living up to 20 years and flying long distances to migrate. Ducks live in couples or groups and spend their days looking for food in the grass or shallow water. But not the ones raised on factory farms, where tens of thousands of geese and ducks spend their entire lives crammed inside dirty, dark sheds, where they are deprived of everything that is natural to them and live-plucked several times a year before being slaughtered or force-fed for another year to produce foie-gras. WHAT YOU CAN DO! As a consumer, you have the power to refuse to support this cruel industry. D not purchase anything made with down. Numerous warm lightweight synthetics can replace down. When shopping, look for down-free sleeping bags, comforters, pillows or coats with synthetic fillings, easily available in most stores. Many well-intentioned compassionate people thinks that down is benign and for the animals, or is a by-product of the meat industry. Whenever you hear of a member of your family, a friend or co-worker planning t purchase something made with down, standup for the animal and explain the cruelty involved in live-plucking, and how buying down supports financially, the cruel meat and or foie-gras industries. Talk or write to store mangers Ask them to cease selling down. Remind them that many products use warm, lightweight synthetic materials, and that selling these materials instead of down is a far kinder way of dong business. References: (1) Andrzej Rosinski, Goose Production in Poland and Eastern Europe, Department of Poultry Science, Agricultural University in Poznan, 1999. (2) Eiderduck Farming in Iceland, Legacy and Vision in Northern Agriculture 4th Conference, Akureyri, Iceland August 2001. (3) Cuddy Duck, A living World. narr. Brett Westwood, BBC Radio, 3 Mar. 2002. (4) M.J. Gentle, L.N. Hunter, Physiological and behavioral responses associated with feather removal in Gallus var domesticus [chickens], Research in Veterinary Science, Vol. 50 (1990) pgs 95-101. (5) M.J. Gentle, L.N. Hunter, Physiological and behavioral responses associated with feather removal in Gallus var domesticus [chickens], Research in Veterinary Science, Vol. 50 (1191) pgs 95-101 (6) J. Janan et al, Effect of Feather Plucking in Geese Blood Glucose Level, Hungarian Veterinary Journal, June 2001. |
|
‘Silkworm’ is the term given to the silk-producing larvae of any several species of moth. Silkworms secrete a fluid which solidifies on contact with sir into a thread that the larvae use to spin around themselves to form a cocoon. In nature, the cocooned larvae develops into a moth who emerges from the coco between 10 to 16 days later. On silk farms, however, the larvae never get a chance to develop into an adult moth. In China and Japan, silkworms have the thread from their cocoons reeled mechanically. To prevent the silkworm pupae from eating through their cocoons and damaging the silk threads, they are killed by immersion in boiling water, steaming, drying in an oven, electrocution or being micro-waved. (1) The thread is then reeled. IN Thailand, silk is hand reeled from Thai moth cocoons containing the live pupae. The cocoons are placed in almost boiling water to loosen the end of the thread for reeling. The pupae inside are frequently eaten by the workers. Approximately 3,000 silkworms die to make every pound of silk. (2) The production and wearing of silk and silk products causes the death and suffering of millions of silkworms. IN addition, insects are not only the victims of the demand for silk-like products. The military and medical communities are leading experiments on hamsters, cows and goats in an attempt to synthesize particular proteins to make a fabric that could replace Kevlar (3), a synthetic fabric that forms planar sheet-like structures a lot like silk-protein. Milk that contains silk proteins, used in fibers sold under the name “bioSteel” (4,5), has been produced by transgenic cloned goats. The company’s president says that he intends to keep a herd of “several thousand animals” to generate the silk. (6) |
|
Worms being boiled to loosen the cocoons so that they can be unraveled to make thread. Silk factory in Souzhou, China, February 2005 |
|
To make batting, cocoons are soaked, which kills the worms. The worms are then removed, and the cocoons are stretched over a hoop . Silk factory in Souzhou, China, February 2005.
|
|
WHAT YOU CAN DO! When shopping, choose humane alternatives to silk ties and other items ; nylon, polyester, tencel, milkweed seed-pod fibers, silk-cotton tree and ceiba tree filaments, and rayon. These alternatives are easily available online and in stores. Ahimsa silk, produced in India for Hindus by the company Designer Weaves, is made from the cocoons of caterpillars who have completed the moth stage and flown away (7). References: (1) Ron Cherry, Sericulture, Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America, 35 (1993): 83-84. (2) Eric. A Wong, Silkworms produce human type III pro-collagen, ISB News Report, Feb. 200. (3) Man-made spiders silk, Materials World, 10 (2002): 26-28. (4) Stephen Wilingham, Scientists Weave Spider Silk into New Bullet Proof Vests, National Defense, Sep. 2000. (5) Edward Atkins, Silk’s Secrets, Nature, Aug 28, 2003. (6)Stephen Wilingham, Scientists Weave Spider Silk into New Bullet Proof Vests, National Defense, Sep. 2000. (7) Peace Silk for Soft Feel, Clear Conscience, Global sources fashion accessories and supplies, 19 Dec. 2002. |
|
Copyright © ASAP Nova Scotia 2007 |
|
There are two kinds of wool: shorn or pulled. Shorn wool is taken from the animal still alive. Pulled wool is taken from the animal after slaughter. Wool can come from sheep, goats, rabbits or even Tibetan antelopes. It may be called wool, mohair, cashmere, pashmina, shahtoosh or angora. No matter its name, it almost certainly means suffering for the animal it came from. Sheep Many people believe that shearing sheep causes little or no discomfort to the animals, and that the wool is simply shaved from the outside of the animal, helping animals who might otherwise be burdened with too much wool during the summer months. This is far from the truth. Without human interference, sheep grow just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes. The fleece provides effective insulation against both cold and heat and naturally sheds. Wool was once obtained by plucking it from the sheep during molting seasons. But to avoid loss of wool, shearing is now practiced each spring, after lambing, just before they would their winter coats. Sheared sheep can suffer freeze as the heat is drawn from their bodies if shearing is done too early, or in some cases severe sunburn. To be sheared, sheep are thrown on their backs and restrained with tight clamps on their faces while a razor is run over their bodies. Whether sheared manually or mechanically, cuts in the skin are very common. Careless shearing can injure teats, genitalia, other appendages, and ligaments. Death can even occur when the shearer is rough and twists the animal into an organ-damaging position, when the health of the sheep is already poor, or when being stripped of hair is a shock to their system. Mutilations are also common procedures. Within weeks of birth, lambs’ ears are hole-punched, their tails are chopped off, and the males are castrated without anesthetics. Male lambs are castrated when between 2 and 8 weeks old, with a rubber ring used to cut off blood supply—one of the most painful methods of castration possible.(1) Older sheep who do not produce enough wool are sent to slaughter, often tightly packed in trucks over long-distance trips without food or water. (2) In the slaughterhouses, animals often regain consciousness while being dismembered.(2) In addition, other animal species are killed to protect sheep (for instance coyotes and wolves in North America and Europe, respectively) and to stop them from eating the sheep's food (kangaroos in Australia) (3). Merino Wool Australia, with more than 100 million sheep, produces 30 percent of all wool used worldwide. Merinos, the most commonly raised sheep, are specifically bred to have wrinkly skin so that they yield more wool. This unnatural overload of wool causes some animals to die of heat exhaustion during hot months. In addition, the wrinkles collect urine and moisture, attracting flies who lay eggs in the folds of skin (fly strike). The hatched maggots eat away at the live sheep. To prevent this from happening, ranchers cut large chunks of flesh off lambs' rump without anesthetic. This very painful procedure, called “mulesing”, is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that won’t harbor fly eggs. The bloody wounds often get fly strike before they heal.(4) When sheep age and stop producing enough wool, they are sold for slaughter. Every year, about 6.5 million sheep travel often vast distances over land until they reach the feedlots where they are held before being loaded onto ships to the Middle East and North Africa. (5) Many sheep, stressed, ill, or wounded from the journey and faced with intensive crowding, disease, and strange food, die in the holding pens. The surviving sheep endure weeks or months-long trips on overcrowded, disease-ridden ships with little access to food or water. Younger animals or babies born en route are often trampled to death. Many die along the way and those that make it are thrown into the backs of trucks and cars to later have their throats slit while fully conscious. (see video at: http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=save_the_sheep) Cashmere Cashmere (or Tibetan pashmina) is taken from cashmere goats. Because of industry requirements for a certain fur “quality”, goats with “defects” in their coats (50 to 80 per cent of the young goats) are typically killed before two years of age. Like with sheep, goats are often bred in vast numbers, with minimal care. Mutilations and early deaths are common, and survivors are eventually sent to slaughter. Angora Angora wool comes from angora rabbits. These animals, who are extremely clean by nature, are kept in tiny, filthy cages, surrounded by their own waste. Having very delicate footpads, they often develop ulcerated feet due to the wire floors, causing them to live in excruciating pain. They never get the chance to dig, jump or play. Because male angoras have only 75 to 80 percent of the wool yield of females, they are often routinely killed at birth. For shearing, the rabbits are typically strapped onto a board. They struggle and kick vigorously as a result, which leads in the animals getting cut by the clippers. Shahtoosh Shahtoosh, used to make “fashionable” shawls, is made from Chiru, an endangered Tibetan antelope. Chiru cannot be domesticated and must be killed in order to obtain their wool. Illegal to sell or possess since 1975, shahtoosh shawls are still sold on the black market, leading to as many as 20,000 chiru killed every year for their wool. What You can Do! Buying wool and other animal fibres only supports animal abuse. You can help stop the cruelty by refusing to buy wool, clothes made of wool, and clothes from stores that sell wool. Opt for other fibres. Instead of wool, buy warm clothes made of cotton, cotton flannel, polyester fleece, synthetic shearing, plant-based yarns or soft acrylic. Some good quality, warm synthetic fibres have been created in recent years. For example, Tencel is a breathable, durable, and biodegradable fibre and Polar Tec Wind Pro, with four times the wind resistance of wool, is made primarily of recycled plastic soda bottles! Garments made of these fancy alternatives can be expensive but wool is pretty expensive, too, not to mention harder to care for. Remember also that lanolin is a by-product of wool, and thus not a cruelty-free product. References: (1) Christine Townend, Pulling the Wool: A New Look at the Australian Wool Industry (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger Pty. Limited, 1985) 23. (2) “Long Distance Transport of Live Farm Animals”, Compassion in World Farming, Jul. 2002. (3) “Commercial Kangaroo Harvest Quotas - 2003”, Environment Australia, 2003. (4) “Agriculture: The Wool Industry,” Australian Bureau of Statistics, 22 Jan. 2002. (5) “Australian Investigates Live Sheep Export Deaths”, Reuters, 3 Sep. 2002 |
|
[ LEATHER / SUEDE ] [ FUR ] [ FEATHER DOWN ] [ SILK ] [ WOOL ]
|
