How The Fashion Industry Abuses Animals
Sometimes in life, many people are ignorant of the truth that lies behind closed doors. When people go to the store to shop for clothing, they just think of it is a simple item that is everyday use, however, they do not realize the process on the clothing gets there. People go shopping for cosmetics, not knowing how the item is tested out before being placed in the market. In the fashion world, popular items clothing such as leather and wool are pushed to become the most desirable. These pieces are known to be luxurious and high standard, but the fashion industry doesn’t show the reality of how the clothing is obtained or how cosmetics are tested before selling them to their customers. In the fashion industry, animals are tortured through inhuman methods, slaughtered for their skin and are used for test subjects for cosmetics. This is something that goes behind the scenes in the fashion world where people are unaware of what abuse animals have to endure.
To begin with, many animals are tortured before meeting their awful fate. When animals are needed for their skin, they are kept on farms for a few years until the farmers believe the fur is right to pick. During the time on the farms, the animals are barely fed, have access to clean water, don’t have enough space to move, and are kept in unsanitary conditions. Such animals who have faced these conditions are rabbits where they have to endure being plucked for their skin up to three years before being killed. Rabbits are notorious for their angora fur. There was this investigation made by One Voice where they went to a French angora farm. This investigation revealed that the rabbits were tied to the tables while their fur was torn out. They also nodded that Workers had twisted and pulled on the rabbits into unnatural positions for they could pluck their hair. This happens often with the skin still connected from all over their bodies, including their genitals. (Urge Farfetch to Stop Selling Angora Wool From Tortured Rabbits, n.d.) The rabbits and other animals must go through unnecessary pain just for companies to make a profit.
As stated before, the animals must go through torment before being slaughtered for their skin which happens to be the main reason why they must go through the abuse. In the fashion world, they have been selling leather, wool, and fur for years at the expense of the animals. Those types happen to be the most used in the fashion industry and used more often than people realized. Starting with leather, this skin type is used in making coats, jackets, gloves, etc. But where does it comes from? Leather is mainly sourced from factories in China or India that ripped the skin from cattle or even unborn calves. (YJ, 2018) Not to mention, the cattle come from farms that are tortured before heading the factories. Next, wool which happens to be the more complex and more complicated article piece. The wool comes from sheep which happens to be one of the animals that don’t die when their wool is shorn. This shouldn’t be a problem; however, the fashion industry goes about this in the worst way possible. For safety reasons, sheep need their wool shorn so they won’t die from heat exhaustion. Their wool is not shorn for safety reason, rather they are bred for the sake of profit. (Garlow, 2016) When the demand falls short, so the responsibly of taking care of the sheep. This lack of care leads to the unnecessary death of sheep. Lastly, fur which is well known for coming from animals. Fur mainly comes from foxes, minks, and other animals that possess soft, puffy hair. These animals are bred on a farm with the main purpose of producing a coat or accessory. They kill the animals through anal electrocution or neck-breaking in order to prevent damages to their fur. They do not receive any anesthetic to keep costs at a minimum. (Gee, 2012) Even with the main purpose of being killed, the fashion industry spares no expense in easing the death of the animals. Most of these poor animals are bred only to have their own skin ripped from their own bodies and be thrown away as waste.
Not only do the animals have undergo being tortured and slaughtered, but they are also used as test subjects for cosmetics. Before being placed in the market, these products must be properly tested before they are used for consumers. Normally, this would be a good thing, putting a product without being tested could be hazardous to people. The products must be tested, but how would the companies go about it? Using animals of course. This could be seen as the most reasonable and less costly since humans would be away from danger, though this leads to the animals taking in the harm. Animals such as pigs, hamsters, mice, rats, and rabbits are used in testing cosmetics. The test is usually done to the animal’s eye and skin to test for irritation. They would test the chemical by rubbing it on their shaved skin or dripped the chemical into their eyes. Often, they would force-feed the animals to see signs of wide-ranging illness or specific health risks. These tests can create distress or pain to the animal. They are not provided by pain relief and must endure it until the end of the test where most of the time, the animal is killed by neck-breaking, decapitation, or asphyxiation. About one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand animals suffer and die from these tests. (International, 2013) Their cause abuse is not limited to their skin, but also to test products that they have no purpose for.
Animals go through abuse more than people realize. In the fashion industry, animals are tortured through inhuman methods, slaughtered for their skin and are used for test subjects for cosmetics. Animals must go unbelievable tortured before being killed. Most of the animals are bred just for their skin and fur, even so, the time they are alive, they go through pain and suffering that one couldn’t even imagine. The conditions they have to go through are unbearable. Not only are they used for their skin, but they are also used to test cosmetics. These tests make them go through pain and suffering that eventually lead to their deaths. Animals go through so much abuse in the fashion industry it makes one question their ethics, though, thanks to an organization such as PETA, the abuse of animals has lower down and continues lowering down.
Works Cited
Garlow, A. (2016). 5 Worst Ways Animals Are Exploited in the Fashion Industry. Retrieved from OneGreenPlanet: https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/5-worst-ways-animals-are-exploited-in-the-fashion-industry/
Gee, M. (2012, 5 6). Animal Cruelty in the Fashion Industry. Retrieved from Fashionwithaheart: https://fashionwithaheart.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/animal-cruelty-in-the-fashion-industry/
International, H. S. (2013, 3 6). About Cosmetics Animal Testing. Retrieved from Humane Society International: https://www.hsi.org/news-media/about_cosmetics_animal_testing/
Urge Farfetch to Stop Selling Angora Wool From Tortured Rabbits. (n.d.). Retrieved from Peta: https://support.peta.org/page/13441/action/1
YJ, Y. (2018, 1 19). ANIMAL CRUELTY IN THE CLOTHING INDUSTRY. Retrieved from Eli-Africa: http://www.eli-africa.org/2018/01/animal-cruelty-in-the-clothing-industry/
