By Aadishri Yadav
2nd Year Law Student at Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur.
"The awareness about animal cruelty is not yet known to many, most consumers opting for animal skin don't know the process through which the skin is obtained. They are delusional that animals were kept under the best conditions and skin is a by-product of animal farming. Usually, the brands tend to attract easily gullible consumers for their products mostly teenagers."
If you are fond of buying animal fur in fashion, I am sorry, but you might be promoting and paying for animal cruelty.
We often tend to think that animals living on farms are reared for livestock under healthy and pleasant conditions. This image of animal rearing is far from true. Various animals tend to face inhumane conditions during their life course just to sustain the fashion needs of us, humans.
The fashion industry has a darker side to it. This article would talk about the animal cruelty taking place on the onus of fashion industries, whose ateliers witness the making of clothes from real animal fur and skin.
The fashion industry uses three forms of animal products, entailing in their products. The fur. The leather and the wool. Unfortunately, the process of acquiring the skin of the animal is very cruel and ordains a great deal of pain to animals, who are unable to speak for themselves.
The fur usually comes from coyotes, rabbits, chinchillas, foxes, etc. These animals are kept on fur farms, where the living conditions are poor. These animals are snatched off their furs without any painkillers and are often kept in cramped spaces. Workers don’t bother being gentle with animals, they sever their necks and often cause harm to their skin while rearing their fur.
[1]PETA's secret investigation reveals the dreadful treatment of angora rabbits. This brutal step is performed while the rabbits are conscious and unaided by any painkiller. The sight of angora rabbits screaming due to pain is horrific to see. Angora fur farming for fashion leads to the slaughter of millions of angora rabbits. The slaughterhouse is merciless and kills rabbits for meat once they no longer serve the purpose of fur rearing.
Leather is material ripped from an animal's body for the fashion industry. Many famous brands use leather as a major material for selling their brand products. Leather is generally skinned by crocodiles, cows, pigs, alligators, and buffalo. These animals are kept in compact spaces, skinned off alive at times. Abuse ranges from breaking cows' tails to rubbing chilli and tobacco in the eyes of these animals to exhausting them on the way to the slaughterhouse. Animals are kept in extreme crowding and deprivation. Once the animals are skinned off, they are slaughtered and sold for their meat.
Crocodile farming includes nurturing baby crocodiles for 12 weeks and skinning them off once they are a few months old. Their skin is still mostly used for making handbags and footwear. Under this process, their spine is severed for extraction of the skin. Crocodile skin is one of the most used products to sell fashion. The living conditions of these animals are not any better.
Wool is another source and an important one in the fashion industry that promotes animal cruelty. Sheep are the major source of wool and are also very sensitive. They are not kept in warm and healthy environments; rather they are used as wool-generating machines. The wool industry disregards the well-being of the animals and functions as a profit-making institution. Fast work and more wool provide greater profits to the shearers. This has led to a deep violation of the sheep’s life. The misery caused to these animals is immense. Hasty and careless rearing of the sheep causes them to bleed and cause injuries. The wounds caused are sewn with a needle and thread under most unhygienic conditions.
[2]PETA’s investigation caught shearers stomping, kicking, and punching sheep. they are often electrode male sheep who are subjected to utmost pain when their testicles are removed. these innocent animals are treated as objects and often the shearers forget that these animals feel pain as well.
The breeding of such animals is more gruesome than mere killing, the animals are subjected to psychological and mental stress. They are kept in filthy and cramped spaces. This led to the development of parasites in their bodies. The immense pain from the rearing and mental trauma drives them insane. they self-bite themselves and constantly try to escape out of the cage causing them to bleed.
No animal fashion is cruelty-free; the animals see their peers getting ripped off their skin in front of their eyes, and somewhere they know they would be next sooner or later. These innocent animals are forced to suffer immense torture in their whole abruptly ended life cycle.
Conscious consumerism and laws protecting such innocent animals are the only way out of animal cruelty.
Conscious consumerism depends hugely on the choices of the consumer. These animal skins are ripped off only because a huge chunk of society loves to buy from luxurious stores. If consumers become conscious of their choices and retract their choices of animal fashion, lives could be saved.
The awareness about animal cruelty is not yet known to many, most consumers opting for animal skin don't know the process through which the skin is obtained. They are delusional that animals were kept under the best conditions and skin is a by-product of animal farming. Usually, the brands tend to attract easily gullible consumers for their products mostly teenagers.
It is very unlikely that a major chunk of the population would continue to buy animal skins once they are aware of the cruelty such animals face. Making people genuinely aware of animal cruelty would truly help in preserving the lives of the innocent.
Secondly, the laws of a country tend to play an important role in the prevention of animal cruelty. Countries that do not have any laws concerning animal cruelty tend to witness more instances of it.
[3]India follows the Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act, 1960, which administers laws under various ambits preventing animal cruelty. Regardless there is no section exclusively talking about animals reared for animal fashion. this factor of animal cruelty where animal farming is done for ultimate killing is not yet addressed by this statute. There lies a need for conscious actions of the parliament to amend laws and make them more sustainable protecting both the animals and the environment.
Animal cruelty is real and no animal fashion is void of deaths. Wearing clothes that caused deaths to animals, who did not want it for themselves is painful and yet not acknowledged. It's time that we humans, try to be more humane to ourselves and stop animal cruelty with conscious choices and boycotting animal skin.
[3] Prevention of animal cruelty to animals act, 1960
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