7 Clothing Items You Should Boycott If You Are An Animal Lover
chaitra krishnanMA (Journalism & Mass Communication) Experience: 5 yearsChaitra has a triple main bachelor’s degree in journalism, communicative English, and economics from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, and a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from St... more
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Did you know that animals get hunted for their skin, nails, tusks, and other body parts? While some people like to decorate their houses and use them as trophies of their “bravery,” some others like to sell them to the fashion industry. Leather boots and fur coats are expensive and they sure are fancy apparels to show off at cocktail parties. But, do you know that an innocent creature had to give up its life just because you want to look pretty? Well, that only makes you the opposite of pretty.
Today, we are well-educated and equipped to produce animal-friendly and cruelty-free products. However, if the consumers still want animal carcasses to drape themselves, there will always be a few people who would do anything for the money that these dead animals fetch. This is why it’s important for us, as consumers, to distinguish between cruelty-free clothing items and processed body parts of dead animals. In this article, we will help you learn about some of the most popular clothing items that are made at the cost of innocent lives. We hope that after reading this article, you will refrain from purchasing these and go for alternatives. Read on to know more.
- Fur
Fur is made of animal coat of hair that comes along with the skin. Animals that are killed in order to make fur include seals, bears, cats, chinchillas, beavers, rabbits, dogs, minks, foxes, raccoons, and others. These animals are either trapped in the wild, killed, and then ripped off their skin or are raised in a fur farm. Animals that live in fur farms are confined to small cages in a filthy environment. From the beginning of their life until the end, all they know is torture and pain. All of these animals can feel fear, loneliness, and pain. They do not deserve to be killed for making coats.
- Leather
Leather is used to make shoes, belts, bags, wallets, watch straps, jackets, and many other items that we use very often. It is made from the skin of animals like cats, cows, goats, pigs, ostriches, kangaroos, and dogs. During the tanning process of leather, harmful toxins are released into the environment. Also, leather is a product that is closely associated with the meat industry, which plays a very important role in environmental pollution. If you care about animals even a little bit, don’t let them die in vain so that you can dress up.
- Silk
The famous silk fabric is made from silkworms. Silkworms produce silk in the process of building their cocoons. To separate the worms from silk, they are boiled alive in their cocoons. No living thing deserves that amount of pain. So ditch all those silk sarees that you were planning on buying and switch to other fabrics.
- Exotic Skins
Exotic skins mostly refer to the skin of animals like snakes, crocodiles, alligators, and other reptiles. These skins are used to make shoes, bags, and jackets. You may be paying a lot of money to get these but nobody paid for it as much as the innocent animals that were killed to make it.
- Suede
Suede refers to a particular type of leather. They don’t really look like leather because they are soft on the outside and not very shiny. It is made from the softer underside of animal skin whereas regular leather is made out of the tougher outer layer. Again, this is the skin of a dead animal that was tortured and killed. Sure it looks pretty and you feel comfortable and stylish wearing it, but don’t you feel guilty even a bit?
- Wool, Shearling, Cashmere, and Angora
Wool is the hair of a sheep or lamb and shearling is the skin of a lamb. Cashmere is the hair of a Cashmere goat and angora is the hair of a rabbit. You may think that no animal is getting killed in making wool, so there’s no problem in buying it. However, these animals are still tortured (in the case of shearling, killed) to remove the hair out of them. The ears of the sheep are hole-punched, their tails are cut off, and the male sheep are castrated. All this cruelty because we want to use the end result of all the trauma.
- Down Feathers
Down is the short and soft layer of feathers on the skin of birds like geese and ducks. These animals are tortured and killed to take these feathers in order to make clothing and bedding items. Sometimes the feathers are plucked from live birds and you can imagine how painful it can be for them.
If you stop using these evil products and help others see why they should too, the demand for these will take a plunge. In the long run, when the demand drops, people will search for other alternatives to make money and spare these innocent animals. What do you feel about killing animals for clothing items? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
