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NARN depends on YOU for our survival. Without your support we will not be able to continue fighting to stop the suffering of all animals.
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The practice of wearing the skins of animals for fashion is rooted in the historical use of dead animals for warmth and protection against the climate. In modern times, however, technology has led to the development of synthetics that are less expensive and provide better protection from the elements. The practice continues because clothing oneself in dead creatures is now deemed fashionable.
Leather, a by-product of factory farming, accounts for about half the non-meat value of slaughtered livestock. By purchasing leather, a consumer supports the meat industry and thus contributes to the death of over nine billion animals every year. Although smaller in scope, the use of animals for fur coats is perhaps even more ethically repugnant. 31 million animals are killed on fur ranches each year, often by such methods as asphyxiation or genital/anal electrocution. Fortunately, fur is a dying industry, but even more pressure is needed to do away with it completely.
Lesser known issues regarding animals and fashion relate to the use of wool, silk, and down. Up to 40 percent of sheep die before reaching eight weeks of age due to exposure and starvation. Those that live are castrated, have their tails chopped off, and are "protected" from infestation of flies by having strips of skin torn from their hind legs to discourage hatching larvae. Silkworms are typically boiled alive to retrieve their fibrous thread. Chicks and full-grown geese often have their feathers painfully ripped out two or three times before they are sent to slaughter. The reason down feathers are so soft is because they are always new feathers and so are regularly plucked from perfectly conscious birds, allowed to grow back, and plucked again and again.
Because we have such a wide choice of fashions available to us, it's easy to make conscientious decisions regarding our wardrobes. By not buying products that contain leather, fur, wool, silk, or down, we are telling designers and retailers that compassion comes before fashion.
Thirty-one million animals are killed for fur every year, including 8.4 million that are murdered annually in the United States.
The fur trade is responsible for the extinction of three species of tigers, three species of bears, more than a dozen species of wolves, and the Caribbean monk seal.
To make one medium length fur coat, it takes 130-200 chinchillas, 100-400 squirrels, 40-80 mink, 20-30 raccoons, or 10-20 foxes.
Leghold traps, the most commonly used method of catching animals in the wild, are banned in 63 countries, though they are still widely used in the United States and Canada.
Leghold and other traps unintentionally kill about five million dogs, cats, birds, and other animals each year.
Animals raised on fur farms often live three or four to a cage measuring one foot by three feet. The resulting overcrowding leads to high stress, neuroses, and cannibalism.
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