AWAKEN ME: Guide To Veganism
A FREE guide to help you on your vegan journey
After eliminating animal products from your diet you will want to eliminate clothing made from animals skin, hair or fur. The industries that kill animals for clothing are disgusting, still after two years as a vegan I cringe seeing footage from fur factories and the wool industry; perhaps because these animals are knowingly being killed for fashion which is not a necessity, nor is diet but many people don't know.
Wool is the hair of a sheep, one would think it would be okay to make cut off hair into sweaters etc. but you would be wrong to think that, because for a sheep it's no hair cut. Sheep in the wool industry have been genetically modified to produce ALOT of wool.A big problem with that is the sheep have extra folds of skin for more surface area for wool to grow. When being sheered often times the folds of skin get caught in the blade. Workers are often paid by how much 'product' not by hour so a worker does not want to spend time being careful. If a cut does occur sometimes it can be deep and the worker must stitch it up on the spot without antiseptic.Mulesing is commonly practiced to prevent fecal matter from building up in the wool causing infection from flies laying eggs within the wool. Mulesing involves cutting pieces of skin off of a Lambs/Sheep buttocks.Tail docking is also common just like in the dairy industry where the tails are cut off or elastic bands are tightly put around the tail till it dies and falls off. And of course when wool production declines the sheep are sent to slaughter.The good part... There is vegan alternatives so you don't have to pay for this to happen just for an ugly Christmas sweater. Alternatives are commonly made from cotton and they could fool anybody.
Leather, the dried up chemically treated skin of a dead body. People are shocked to find out. And even more shocked to find out most leather comes from India where cows are sacred. Cows are starved in India and then taken at night somewhere they can be killed for their hide. The cows get tobacco & chili peppers to the eyes to keep them up and moving as well as tails broken. For many it's their first time on trucks and they die before reaching the destination from dehydration, starvation, and stress.Working in tanneries is very unhealthy, many workers end up with diseases due to the chemicals they come in contract with. Skin conditions are common as well as vision loss.Workers have little to no protection from chemicals and toxins because there is no safety regulations.Sadly many workers are children as well as very under paid compared to our minimum wage in the western world.These tanneries pump contaminated water out of them, with chemicals such as chromium present. Chromium in particular is one of the worst chemicals the workers+ surrounding community come in contact with; when consumed, inhaled or absorbed by the skin causes lung and/or sinus cancer. Worst of all the contaminated water kills wildlife/ vegetation.Thank goodness there is vegan alternatives so no ones needs to support this just to make a fashion statement.
Just like leather fur is the skin of an animal. Most of the fur you buy today comes from China's fur farms. The most common animal killed is the raccoon dog. Wild Animals are trapped for fur.If fur farmers like their pelts they may then bred the animals for next season. Often times the animals are kept in tiny cages and they circle madly as they are wild animals. Many develop sores, diseases and some have chewed their legs to escape from the trap.Pet dogs are occasionally accidentally trapped. Only then is this when people realize how terrible traps are. Traps can cause broken bones, an animal to bite its own limb off, death if the trapper doesn't regularly check traps (they could freeze to death, starve or die from dehydration on hot days).It's very common for animals to be gassed alive or anally electrocuted as this will not ruin their fur coat.
If the animal is not dead after gassing they try to collapse the lungs by stepping on the animal till they bleed out OR they bread their neck.After the animal is dead... In some cases. They skin them.In some cases the animal is skinned alive (they can live up to 10 min after being skinned) this either happens because they were not killed through gassing and the farmer didn't notice or because the fur farm routinely skins them alive as it takes less time.Environmentally fur farmers and trappers are disrupting the animals ecosystem. That animal is there to control the population, take out the old and weak so natural selection can occur. Instead hunters come to the rescue claiming they control the population. Good thing there is faux/ mock fur.
Thankfully fur is one of the easiest animal fashions to differentiate faux from real, simplify just pull the fur back to see how its secured to the jacket. To diffreiciate leather or wool the ingriendts will have to be read or the company contacted.
Below are videos to help summarize and direct you to vegan alternatives, please click on the images to be re-directed:
After learning about the animal cruelty/ exploitation that happens with wool, leather and fur you may wish to learn about sustainable and ethical fashion. Fashion that is better for the environment and human rights. The perfect documentary to watch to learn about this will be linked below just click on the image.
