Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr15/vegsocuk.zip/CLOTHING.TXT

Text File | 1995-03-13 | 14KB | 264 lines

                            VegSocUK Information Sheet
                              THE VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

   ___________________________________

                                    CLOTHING

ANIMAL-DERIVED PRODUCTS

  ALPACA

   This fibre - it's a hair rather than a wool -  comes from the alpaca, a
   relative of the llama, domesticated in the Andes for over 6000 years.

  ANGORA

   Angora is a fibre obtained from a special breed of rabbit. China and South
   America provide the bulk of the trade, which amounts to 4000 tonnes a year.
   The rabbits are not killed for their wool, but sheared regularly.  Each
   rabbit will give between 200g and 1500g of wool a year. However, they are
   kept in cages in much the same way as rabbits bred for meat, and as they have
   a longer commercial life than meat rabbits, their suffering might be said to
   be even worse. Males have only about 75% of the wool yield of females, so are
   often routinely killed at birth.

  CASHMERE

   Genuine Cashmere must be one of the most expensive fibres there is. It comes
   from the underbelly of a special breed of Himalayan goat (it's the animal's
   natural protection from the severe cold) and it is obtained by combing each
   goat by hand during the moulting season. One goat yields only about 4oz of
   cashmere per year and on average, it takes the yield of three goats to make
   one sweater.  Of the world's cashmere 85-90% comes from China.

  DOWN & FEATHERS

   Many duvets are filled with down, the very soft feathers from the breasts of
   geese and ducks. Chickens and turkeys don't produce down. Down can be
   obtained by plucking, but over 90% is a slaughterhouse byproduct, and even
   the birds that have been plucked end up on the table soon afterwards.  Most
   down is produced in the Orient, Canada and Europe.

   Beauty Without Cruelty Charity reports (summer 1992) that in Hungary, France,
   Israel and China, live geese have their feathers ripped off, a process that
   may be  repeated every 8 weeks for about 3 sessions until the bird is killed
   for food or force fed to make pate de foie gras.

   The female eider duck plucks down from her breast to line her nest After
   the chicks have grown up and abandoned the nest, the down can be collected by
   anyone brave enough to face the climb up the cliffs! A pound of eider down
   sells for $300 so it's not easy to find items made from down collected in
   this way.

   Ostriches are farmed for meat, leather, eggs and feathers. In 1982 South
   African farms produced 741,000lbs of feathers worth #2 million (figures from
   Turning Point, Aug 91).  The feathers are plucked from breeding birds every
   nine months or so. A British producer describes how birds are immobilised in
   a wooden V shaped crush, while feathers are cut off. The quills are left
   behind to die and fall out. In the wild, ostriches live for about 75 years;
   ostriches farmed for meat, leather and feathers are slaughtered at 12-14
   months and so enjoy just a fraction of their normal lifespan. Their natural
   habitat is the open plains of Africa where they can run at speeds of up to
   40mph. Farmed ostriches are kept in pens of quarter to half an acre per pair
   and in America, may be kept in truly intensive conditions, ie indoors.

  FUR

   Most people know about the cruelties involved in obtaining fur. The animals
   are either trapped wild or farmed. Both methods of production involve
   cruelty.  Wild trapping can mean endangered species being wiped out, besides
   the individual suffering of animals caught in steel-jawed leghold traps. Some
   animals go to desperate lengths to escape, often gnawing off part of their
   own leg or paw. The traps do not discriminate, so other animals may also be
   destroyed or maimed, including some domestic animals. As many as 50% of the
   animals caught in traps will be no use to the fur trade, which refers to them
   as "trash animals". Farmed animals, principally mink and arctic fox, are kept
   imprisoned all their lives in tiny cages. Fur farming is a vast industry with
   more than 40 million animals being raised in intensive conditions, mainly in
   North America and Scandinavia. Consider what it must be like for a creature
   like the arctic fox, which naturally roams a territory of about 15,000 acres,
   to spend its life in a cage measuring just a few cubic feet.

   Animals like mink are often introduced into a country by accident when they
   escape from fur farms, posing a threat to native wildlife. For example, it
   was reported in New Scientist (30.3.91) that water voles in North Yorkshire
   are under threat from mink who not only prey on them but also take over their
   breeding sites. The mink population is increasing but the future looks bleak
   for the voles. In Britain, there is no legal requirement for the farmers to
   be trained in methods of slaughtering their livestock.

      More information:

   Operation Fur Factory,
   PO Box 87, Rochdale, Lancs, OL16 1AA.

   No Fur Campaign,
     WSPA, Park Place, 10 Lawn Lane, London, SW8 1UD.  Tel: [phone]

   Respect for Animals,
   PO Box 500, Nottingham NG1 3AS.

  LEATHER

   Should vegetarians wear leather? That's a question we hear all the time. Some
   people think it is OK because leather is just a by-product of the meat
   industry and the animals weren't killed just for their skins.  Others seem to
   believe that there's a strong chance the animal died naturally. But neither
   excuse really holds water. Very few farm animals in this country ever reach
   the natural end of their lifespan, most are killed when they are little more
   than adolescents. The remaining ones go for slaughter because they are worn
   out by a lifetime of continuous breeding and/or lactation and artificially
   heightened fertility. The leather we like best, soft leather, doesn't come
   from old cows at all, it comes from calves and the softest leather of all
   comes from unborn calves whose mothers have been slaughtered. And leather
   might be just a byproduct, but it's a very important one for the meat trade.
   About 10% of the value of the animal at the abattoir is in its skin, worth
   about £650 million a year in the UK, so by buying leather, we are helping to
   support the meat industry. Domestic animals aren't the only ones to be used
   for leather production, the list includes deer, alligators, crocodile, toads,
   ostriches (see under DOWN & FEATHERS), kangaroos, lizards, snakes and seals.
   Many of these are already endangered species but the high prices commanded by
   their skins make it very tempting for impoverished natives to poach.  And
   although we are far from convinced that death in a slaughterhouse is humane,
   some attempt at least is made to stun the animals first.  Wild species killed
   for leather have no protection at all, they may be clubbed to death or caught
   in cruel traps. A report in the American magazine Animals Agenda (March 1991)
   suggests snakes and lizards are routinely skinned alive because dealers
   believe this makes the finished skin more supple. Studies by herpetologists
   found that alligators and other reptiles could survive live skinning, taking
   nearly two hours to die afterwards.

   Finding alternatives to leather is not quite as easy as finding alternative
   vegetarian foods, but we should certainly do what we can. For example, no-one
   needs to buy handbags, purses, wallets and belts made from leather, plenty of
   acceptable alternatives are available.  Finding alternatives to leather
   clothing designed specifically for protection, like heavy-duty shoes and
   motorcycling leathers is not so easy but do keep on asking. It is very
   important to let manufacturers and retailers know that there is a demand for
   alternatives to leather.

   Some people will say that leather is a natural, eco-friendly product but the
   leather industry is a major source of pollution. Tanneries are often sited
   near rivers as the process needs a plentiful supply of water and the waste -
   including hair, salt, lime, sludge, acids and chrome - is discharged into the
   river

      More information from:

   Campaign Against Leather and Fur,
   BM 8889, London WC1N 3XX.
   See also our Information Sheet on Footwear and other Leather Alternatives.

  MOHAIR

   This is the product of the white Angora goat. It's a long fibre, coarser than
   cashmere. Very large herds of up to 20,000 Angora goats are kept in South
   Africa and Texas, purely for mohair production.

  SILK

   Silk comes from silkworms, which are not true worms but the caterpillars of
   the silk moth, Bombyx mori. The caterpillars will only eat mulberry leaves
   and when they are ready to pupate, they protect themselves by spinning the
   silk round and round themselves to form a cocoon. Typically, each worm
   produces a mile and a half of continuous thread. When metamorphosis is
   complete and the moth is ready to leave its cocoon, it secretes an alkali
   which eats its  way through the thread. This spoils the thread for spinning
   as it is no longer continuous. So, in order to get good quality silk, the
   moths must be killed before they leave the cocoon. This is done by
   suffocation with steam or heating them in an oven. Only a small number
   necessary for breeding the next generation are allowed to complete their
   lifecycle.  Whether or not the pupae feel any pain whilst being suffocated or
   subjected to heat is a debatable, but most vegetarians consider silk is not
   acceptable as it cannot be produced without the death of a living creature.

  WOOL

   In Britain at least, wool production is just a byproduct of the meat
   industry, as British wool doesn't command a high enough price to make it
   worth keeping sheep for their fleece alone.  The sheep have to be sheared
   because the fleece gets so heavy and thick, they would suffer from
   heat-stroke during the summer if it were left on. However, this isn't a
   natural condition. Wild species of sheep survive without shearing. Through
   generations of selective breeding humans have changed the characteristics of
   the fleece to suit themselves, not the sheep. British wool tends to be used
   for coarse fabrics like carpets. The fine wool needed for good sweaters etc
   comes from Merino sheep, a breed that originated in Spain but which is now
   kept in vast numbers in Australia. About 70% of the wool used for clothing
   comes from Australia, where the practice of mulesing, where folds of skin
   under the sheep's tail are removed without an anaesthetic to form a wool free
   scar to discourage blow flies, is common. Approxamately 27% of UK wool is
   skin wool, ie obtained from slaughtered sheep, mainly lambs.

  FELT

   Felt is a material produced by a process that mats and hardens the fibres.
   Felt is usually made from wool, but it can be made from fur.  You should be
   careful buying a felt hat as it may be either. Rabbit skin is often the
   source of fur for felt hats.

PLANT FIBRES

  COTTON

   Cotton is, of course, a plant product but there are various environmental
   considerations to be taken into account, like the heavy use of pesticides,
   dyes and other chemicals in the finishing process causing pollution. Cotton
   is the most widely used natural fibre, grown in 80 countries occupying 30
   million hectares, it represents 5% of the world's agriculture and uses 50% of
   the world's insecticides, and has an annual value of $24 billion. Cotton has
   been used as a textile in Asia and America since prehistoric times, but it
   did not become important in Europe until the 17th and 18th centuries. The
   biggest growers are China, USA, Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Turkey
   and Egypt. Pesticides are a particular problem in third world countries as
   peasant farmers dependent on cash crops can increase their yield by as much
   as 200% with only four applications. DDT is still used in the developing
   world where it is often too hot for the correct protective clothing to be
   worn. Instances of poisoning by insecticides are probably higher than
   reported. (Figures from The Guardian 29.10.90).

   Unbleached cotton garments are quite widely available, The Vegetarian
   Society's Merchandise catalogue contains unbleached T-shirts, bags and
   aprons.

  LINEN

   Linen is also a vegetable product, being derived from the Flax plant, Linum
   usitatissimum. Flax is one of the world's oldest cultivated plants. The
   fibres are extracted from the plant by a process called retting.

  RAYON

   The raw material for rayon is eucalyptus trees, but it requires chlorine in
   the early stages of production, which in turn causes pollution by
   organo-chlorine compounds including dioxin.

  SYNTHETICS

   Synthetic materials are usually oil-based with about 25 thousand barrels of
   oil a day being used to manufacture materials. Oil is a non-renewable
   resource and the petro-chemical industry can cause serious pollution.
   Synthetics are not biodegradable. The production of nylon leads to large
   quantities of nitrous oxide being emitted. Nitrous oxide is one of the gases
   responsible for the greenhouse effect.
   ___________________________________



//
This article is copyright to the Vegetarian Society (UK), but may be freely
copied for non-commercial use provided it is kept intact, not altered
and these lines are included.

For futher information contact: The Vegetarian Society, Parkdale, Dunham Road,
Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 4QG, England. Tel: (England) 061 928 0793
email: [e-mail]
//



[The text of this file was obtained from the Vegetarian Society (UK) in
March 1995.]