What’s Wrong With Fur, Leather & Wool?

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Fur Exposed:

For animals caged on fur farms, caught in steel traps or skinned alive, fur is cruel and brutal. Whether it’s a fur coat, a fur trim or fur lining—it’s still a dead animal. And why would anyone want to drape the lifeless skin of a dead animal over their shoulders? It’s so easy to dress your best in faux-liciously fluffy fake fur, why wouldn’t you? 

Fur Farms Are Factory Farms:  Almost all fur in Australia is imported from Europe, the US and Asia, where animals killed for their fur are caught from the wild in painful traps and even more are locked in tiny cages on fur factory farms. Severe confinement sends many animals insane and drives some even to self mutilation. Foxes, raccoons and other generally solitary animals find the tiny crowded spaces especially stressful, to the point that some cannibalise their cage mates.

Fur Is Pain: While some foolishly see fur as a status symbol of elegance and dignity, what they don’t realise is that the animals who died for that clothing died in the most brutal and undignified ways imaginable. For their fur animals may be:

• anally or vaginally electrocuted
• drowned
• gassed
• poisoned
• skinned alive
• or beaten to death.

Fur Is A Deadly Trap:  Wild animals caught for their fur have their bodies crushed in bone-breaking traps. They can spend days in agonising pain, slowly bleeding or starving to death before the trapper returns to take their skin.

Would You Wear Your Pet: In Asia, millions of dogs and cats are killed for their fur. While it is illegal to import dog and cat fur to Australia, some of these furs are mislabelled, for example as fox or mink, and are imported to countries like Australia and the US. Most of the fur trims and trinkets in Australia are made from rabbits who were brutally killed and skinned for their fur in China.

Alternatives To Fur:  More and more retailers are stocking fake furs. Synthetic ‘furs’ are adorably soft, and can be found in a huge variety of striking colours, styles and patterns. Some look and feel just like the ‘real’ thing too! What’s even better is that they won’t leave a huge dent in your wallet like real fur can.

Read labels carefully—even on brightly dyed fur, or garments that only have fur ‘trim’. Remember, fur ‘trims’ are not off-cuts—they were once animals too!

Some stores sell only faux fur products. Ask at the counter to find out. For a real faux furry treat, check out:

Donna Salyers’ Fabulous Furs http://fabulousfurs.com/ —amazing variety, and 100% faux!

Leather Exposed:

A cow needs her skin just as much as a fox needs his fur. And for the millions of intelligent, social animals who are killed and skinned, leather isn’t cool—it’s just plain cruel. With so many fake leathers and leather alternatives, there’s no excuse not to faux your feet (or rather, faux your shoes) and pleather your purse. So when you dress to impress, don’t dress in death! Here’s why…

Leather – More Than Meat’s Leftovers: Around the world millions of animals die every year solely for their skin to be stripped from their body and turned into leather. Leather is not just a by-product of the meat industry!

Animals Pay The Price For Leather: In Australia and around the world, cattle routinely endure branding, castration de-horning, and disbudding, all without pain relief.

While cows in Australia have it bad, much of the leather in Australia comes from countries with even worse standards for animals, such as India and China. That means when you pay for leather the animals pay an even higher price.

From Cow To Coat There’s Only Pain: For many Indian cattle, their deadly journey from grazing in a field to becoming a coat in a department store begins when they are bought from poor Indian families, who are promised the animals will be treated kindly. Nothing could be further from the truth—the torturous treks these animals are forced to make and the gruelling truck rides offer no happy ending, only exhaustion, abuse, and death.

A Toxic Look: If the environmental impact of livestock weren’t already a huge problem, the leather industry steps up the destruction another notch! Just like anything dead, animal skins naturally decompose. To stop skins from rotting, tanneries use all sorts of toxic chemicals, which can cause cancer, leukaemia and heaps of other problems for workers and nearby residents. These poisons can also run off into water streams and wreak havoc on plant and animal life.

Leather costs lives (and not to mention, puts a dent in your wallet). Have killer looks without the deadly consequences. Pleather yourself (if you’re that way inclined), grab some victim-free vinyl, or check out some other great alternatives. But most importantly, leave the animals out of it

Alternatives To Leather: You don’t need to look further than your closest department store for inexpensive vinyl and imitation leather products such as shoes, wallets and belts. But you might need to do a little research, as non-leather items are usually mixed in with the leather ones. Read the labels, and ask questions to ensure you don’t accidentally walk out with the skin of a dead cow!

There are also some great brands that specialise in cruelty-free shoes, wallets, jackets, purses, and other typically leather items. Some favourites include:

Macbeth shoes http://macbethfootwear.com/ (their range includes a dedicated ‘vegan’ line of shoes)

Vegan Wares http://www.veganwares.com/ (located in Melbourne, or via mail-order),

Vegetarian Shoes  http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/ (U.K. based, but great variety and top quality) just to name a few.

 

Wool Exposed:

Australia is one of the largest wool producers in the world. In fact, we have more sheep than any other country—around 82 million. And while you may think that life for sheep is all green pastures, that’s far from the truth for these intelligent animals, who are used by a profit driven wool industry

Wool Is A Pain For Sheep: Many sheep die on Australian farms from neglect, poor management and being introduced to into inappropriate climates. Lambs are also routinely subjected to crude and painful surgical procedures including castration, mulesing and tail docking—all without pain relief. And at shearing sheds sheep, who are not used to human handling, are roughly grabbed, pinned between a shearer’s legs and can suffer cuts and grazes in the rush to shear as many sheep as quickly as possible.

An Ugly Business: There are no ifs or buts about it, if you buy ugg boots that means an animal died. Almost all wool sheep are killed before old age. In their final hours or days they are forced into trucks and hauled many long hours without access to food or water, only to have their throat slit at the slaughterhouse.

Give Wool The Flick: Sheep are intelligent, social animals. They can suffer just as much as any other. Wool and sheep skin are a cruel and bloody affair. So why waste your time with wool? Say good bye to your woolly wardrobe and give those Ugg-lies the boot.

Alternatives To Wool:  With so many warm and fuzzy wool alternatives (that don’t shrink in the wash!) why would you wear anything else? From fluffy soft synthetic scarves, to cosy knitted cotton jumpers, linen wraps and organic woven hemp jackets—even faux ugg boots (if you really want)—there’s something to suit everyone.

Textiles have come so far that what looks like wool on the shelves is often a different material altogether. So read the labels and look for easy-to-find wool alternatives.
Then you can rug up in your winter cosies and feel warm and fuzzy on the inside and the outside—knowing that your wardrobe is wool-(and cruelty)-free!