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Animal-care raw materials

What are animal-care / animal-friendly raw materials and fabrics?

There is a long history of humans using various animal leather and hair materials for clothing. What this means is that animals are sacrificed to make garments, shoes and accessories made of fur, leather, down, wool and other animal hairs.

In recent years, animal welfare organisations have started to disseminate hard-hitting scenes of suffering animals on social media, with a global impact. This has helped fuel a recent drive towards more environmentally and animal-friendly fashion, alongside greater awareness of sustainability.

What does the production of animal-friendly fabrics entail?

● Properly considered and appropriate breeding: Leather or down for feather padding should be obtained by breeding in an appropriate environment and from meat industry by-products.

● Animal-friendly sampling method: Methods such as ‘live plucking’ or skinning of live animals or the use of leather or fur from endangered species should be prohibited.

● Traceability: The ability to trace the history of each process involving animal raw materials, processing, distribution and sales.

Relevant issues to consider for animal-derived fabrics used for clothing

● Real fur: Problematic breeding conditions or use of ‘live skinning’.

● Feather/down: Problematic ‘live plucking’ or short-cycle picking for softer feathers.

● Angora: Collecting hair from the whole body with improper positioning.

● Wool: A movement to ban the method known as <mulesing> (the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep to prevent the parasitic infection of flystrike (myiasis), as such skinning without the use of anaesthesia can inflict enormous pain on sheep.

Trend towards vegan fashion

The term ‘vegan’ originally referred to a total vegetarian and applies similarly to fashion in which zero animal-derived fashion products are used. Products used in clothing, bags and/or shoes that are made with methods that do not inflict cruelty on animals constitute so-called vegan fashion, which has gradually established a presence and come under the spotlight in recent.