Some More Products of Animal Slavery (Vol. 2)

WOOL

Many people believe that shearing sheep helps animals who would otherwise be burdened with too much wool. The truth is that without human interference, sheep grow just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes. In Australia, sheep are specifically bred to grow excess wool and to have wrinkly skin, which means more wool per animal. The idea that taking wool does not harm the sheep is comforting mythology. Most shearers are paid on a piece rate and not by the hour, which encourages extremely fast work (“gun shearers” can spend as little as 2 minutes per sheep) and many animals end up being severely injured in the process. Besides that, young lambs’ tails are chopped off not long after birth and the males are castrated without anesthesia.

Australian ranchers perform a barbaric operation called "mulesing" where they, without any painkillers whatsoever, slice chunks of flesh from around the animals’ tail area. This is done to cause smooth, scarred skin that prevents flies from hatching eggs between the warm moist skin wrinkles. Ironically, the exposed, bloody wounds themselves often get flystrike before they heal, so mulesing may kill more sheep than it saves, but it still continues. After the operation, lambs can be seen writhing over the ground on their sides, trying to escape the pain.

Once the sheep are no longer producing prime wool, they are shipped to slaughter to the Middle East or North Africa. Only about 17% survive the enduring weeks- or months-long journey through all weather extremes on crowded and disease-ridden ships with little access to food or water, only to be killed at their arrival.

Even though sheep’s wool is the most commonly spread, there are also other sorts of wool like angora, cashmere, mohair or alpaca that all involve similar violence and abuse. As for “cutting” the wool out, there are plenty of lighter and less itchy alternatives out there, including cotton flannel, polyester fleece, nylon, acrylic, orlon, Tencel (breathable and biodegradable) or Polartec Wind Pro (made from recycled plastic bottles with four times the wind resistance of wool).

SILK

The silkworm produces a fine thread by making a figure-eight movement some 300,000 times over several days, constructing a cocoon to inhabit in a state of sleep and casting off its skin. After this the pupa begins the period which would normally result in transformation into a winged moth. However, the pupa would normally begin to secrete an alkali that eats its way through the cocoon — ruining someone’s future silk suit. Therefore, as the cocoons take shape, the silkworms are killed by heat: immersed in boiling water, oven-dried, electrocuted or microwaved.

The silk production terminology - stifled for killed and crop for pupae - echoes the denial that we are dealing with living creatures which are awe inspiring when one considers their metamorphic life-cycle

Plant fibers are capable of producing some great silk alternatives. For example, fibers from the pineapple, silk-cotton tree or milkweed seed pods may be made into fabrics as strong and lustrous as any silk. Synthetic fibers like nylon, polyester (Terylene, Dacron) or acrylic (Courtelle, Orlon, Dralon) also have their qualities.

DOWN

Down, the soft feathers from the breasts of geese and ducks, is either plucked from birds slaughtered for food or from forcibly restrained live animals. Either way, they live miserable lives, packed by masses in confinement inside large warehouses. Birds who undergo live de-feathering may be plucked every six weeks - up to five times during their short painful lives.

The down industry is directly linked to the meat and foie gras production, so the cruelty that ducks and geese endure is as horrifying as for any other factory farmed animal. Let me just derive from the subject fot a little bit and use the opportunity to show you this video on foie gras:

Meant to keep the birds and their eggs warm, down feathers are commonly used in pillows, jackets and comforters, for which it can take the feathers of dozens and dozens of birds to fill. So why rob these millions of birds bare naked if we don't really need down anyway? In fact, hypoallergenic synthetic down, polyester fill, Primaloft or Polarguard may even probably end up weighing less on your wallets, not talking about your consciousness.

And do I even have to mention the use of fur and leather? If you hesitated with answering that then why haven't you still seen the "Earthlings"? It's too scary and sad and revolting? Then go see the wonderful, beautiful film produced by Tribe of Heart called "The Witness" and take a look at this while you're at it.

Some More Products of Animal Slavery (Vol. 1)

First of all let me start by reviewing the basics. In 1944, Donald Watson created the term "vegan" and gave it the following definition:

Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals.

Bearing this in mind, I’d like to go through all the products that, as soon as I mention my not consuming them, make even the most vegan-tolerant people mostly go "Huuuh? But whyyyyy!?" and roll their eyes behind my back…

 

HONEY

It is not a question of whether bees are intelligent or not. They are obviously amazing creatures in many different ways: able to communicate on several different levels (odor, sound, movement, etc.), they have an incredible skill of orientation, covering over 100 km² per colony and always finding the straightest way back to the hive; they are the hardest workers and their society is extremely well organized. (Watch this for example).

It is not a question of whether they can or can not feel pain. Although I’d like to remind you that bees, as all living creatures, have a complex nervous system as well as the ability to move in order to avoid harm (which you must have noticed if you have ever come across one of them and tried to slap them away). It is not only an evidence of common sense and logic but has also been researched in scientific studies.

 

The real ethical problem is in the simple fact that humans have enslaved bees, using them uniquely for our own benefit. Now, there are many misleading general perceptions on the way beekeeping is organized. Firstly – most honey is not produced at sweet little flowery farms, but in huge industrialized factory farms. Secondly – people do kill bees and not only by getting stung. In fact, beekeepers kill their queens and replace them by new ones coming from commercial suppliers every one or two years in order to maintain control over the hive and to keep honey production at maximum. Even worse – some bee farmers kill off their hives before every winter because it is more profitable for their income.

Contrarily to what we might expect, bees are not domesticated and if given the opportunity they could abscond (the entire colony leaves) or swarm (they raise a new queen and divide the hive in half to leave and form a new colony somewhere else). But bees cannot leave even if they wanted to because beekeepers control their queens and capture the swarming colonies to bring them back. Even during fall and winter a mouse guard is placed in front of the hive entrance.

”Beekeepers are continuing an ancient tradition," one might say in their defense. Think again: the hives used in bee farming today were invented only 150 years ago and are specially designed for large-scale honey extraction. These methods are therefore radically different from those created thousands of years ago and have nothing in common with beekeeping methods that emphasize humility, respect and being part of nature as opposed to managing nature for human gain as our capitalist order dictates.

"They only take the excess honey that bees produce," some claim. Actually, all beekeepers take nearly every last bit of spring-season honey. And according to James E. Tew, an Extension Specialist in Apiculture: "Commercial beekeepers frequently extract [read: steal] all fall-season honey and then feed colonies either sugar syrup or corn syrup in quantities great enough to provide all the winter food the bees would need." But anyone in their right mind can guess that honey is not just some random sweet sticky stuff that bees like to eat – it is their natural food that contains just the right amount of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals that their bodies need to function and that they will not get from plain sugar water. Just like infants need their mother's milk and not the milk produced by a mom of another species... 

Bees are also used for other byproducts such as beeswax for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, polishes, and candles; royal jelly (that some people believe has youth-preserving qualities) and venom, sought for medicinal purposes. All this does not mean that vegans are left without any thick sweet and sticky yummy stuff to spread over our vegan pancakes or to add into our vegan cookies. There are numerous plant-based honey alternatives out there including Agave nectar, Maple syrup, Barley Malt syrup and many more. You can find plenty of information on honey alternatives and vegan honey recipes here.

And if you are sick and tired of all these "vegangelical" and hard to digest facts about bees, I encourage you to go and see the "Bee Movie" which is light and funny and sweetly sincere regarding many points of the bee-being.