Fashion industry tied to significant wildlife slaughter in new analysis
Faunalytics — an organisation which conducts research and shares knowledge relating to the suffering of non-human animals — has recently released analysis of 15 years worth of legal wildlife import data from the United States.
The data found that over this time period, beginning in 2000, 60 biological classes and more than 3.2 billion live organisms were legally traded.
A major learning from the report? The fashion industry is responsible for an enormous amount of suffering, when it comes to the import of slaughtered wild animals,.
The role of fashion in the trade of wild animals
The most valuable animal species groups imported in the analysis period were mammals and reptiles. The majority of these imports came from China and the Phillipines. We know that both of these countries are strongly tied to the trade of both fur-bearing animal skins, and reptile skins respectively.
74.6% of all imports in this time period were for commercial gain. When considering the value of these imports, we see that the fashion industry is tied to a significant amount of trade.
Specifically, animal skins, garments, leather products both large and small, shoes, and jewellery combined, made up a significant portion of the total import value.
From the Faunalytics analysis
In fact, at least 70% of the top 10 highest-value wildlife products in the Faunalytics analysis were associated with the fashion industry.
Why does it matter?
Wild, or free-living animals, like all animal individuals, are sentient. They have the capacity to feel pain and fear, as much as they can pleasure and joy.
In these trades, individuals are commodified, and through violence, turned into products for sale in the fashion industry.
Fur-bearing animals, reptiles like snake and lizards, kangaroos, and even some aquatic species like stingrays are ripped from their natural homes and exploited for fashion.
These animals all needlessly and unjustly lose their lives, and often, their slaughter is extremely brutal. Investigations have found kangaroo young to be beaten with blunt force, snakes to be blown up like balloons, and fur-bearing animals to be skinned while fully conscious.
"‘A leopard skin jacket seized by law enforcement hangs on shelves packed with other wildlife products at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Property Repository in Colorado’ // Brennan Linsley, AP, via National Geographic
Illegal trade
What’s more, some trade and slaughter of free-living animals can harm entire ecosystems, if threatened species are traded.
Endangered species on the IUCN Red List are often illegal to slaughter and trade, however there is still a significant amount of illegal wildlife trade for fashion. Further reports have found that illegally slaughtered endangered species have been mislabelled and in some cases sold to the public, by luxury fashion brands, as though they were not endangered species.
What can we do?
The best way to protect wild, free-living animals is to never wear them.
If we are looking to increase our impact for animals, we can move beyond the personal, and demand wider, systemic change. We can Contact fashion brands, our local members of government, or anyone else with the power to change whether or not animals are sold for fashion. We can tell them about both the issue, and the solution — a ban on these animal materials.
Our voices are more powerful than we often realise — especially if we band together.