Animals as Clothing/Commodity

Humans kill and injure an untold number of animals to make clothing, car seats, toys, pillows, and other products. Animals who die for our clothing include cows, pigs, rabbits, coyotes, ostriches, and rattlesnakes.

Cow skins are used for any number of items sold on the market, the most common of which are belts, shoes, handbags, and wallets. The leather made from a cow¹s skin is roughly equal in value to the flesh of that cow, which means leather is not a byproduct. The miserable factory farm conditions behind a steak are also behind a leather wallet. As a rule these animals suffer extreme crowding and confinement, unanesthetized castration, branding, tail-docking and de-horning, and cruel treatment during transport and slaughter. The pelts of fur-bearing animals are used primarily for coats, though scraps may be used for cat toys. Some fur stores, in what must be viewed by rational minds as obscene, peddle stuffed animals such as teddy bears made from the skins of live animals such as minks.

Silkworms suffer agonizing deaths to feed the market for silk ties, silk underwear, and silk sheets.

Wool sweaters and blankets are not nearly so benign as they appear. The shearing process is rife with injury. Poorly timed shearing leads many sheep to die of exposure. Most sheep are raised in Australia. When sheep age and their productivity decreases, they are transported long distance to slaughterhouses in trucks and trains without food or water. Many million are sent alive to the Middle East every year where they are killed in ritual slaughter.

There are, of course, alternatives. RMAD supports synthetic fabrics and cotton, especially organic cotton.

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