#but we get multiple products from a sheep as opposed to a plastic shirt!!!!!!

[velvetedantler]

SLAY, an animal rights documentary on animals in the fashion industry, has to be one of the most poorly researched documentaries I’ve seen in awhile. Not only does the documentary go after fur (which is to be expected), but also wool and leather while making some startlingly false claims. 

First of the major claims against fur is that they state fur is not biodegradable, a talking point they admit to taking from Collective Fashion Justice (an animal rights clothing collective). CFJ claims that only 20% of the fur is biodegradable, which they took from a portion of this study. The actual statistic is that at the 30-day mark the mink had degraded by 25.8%, while the fake fur hadn’t degraded at all. 

According to the paper, “in the disintegration test, it was observed that the Undyed mink fur, Undyed fox fur, Dyed mink fur and Dyed fox fur partially disintegrated [after 30 days]: the skin fell apart and disappeared but the hairs remained. The fake fur did not show any disintegration, only discoloration” (Debeer). Fur is made of pure keratin which is hard to break down, this is why there are some hair follicles still left over from extinct animals! The part that is easier to disintegrate is leather part, even with the tanning process the material is biodegradable. 

The most irritating claim they make is that fur, leather, and wool have a higher carbon footprint. First, the carbon footprint doesn't take into account the fact that cattle, sheep, and animal raised for fur produce multiple products. A polyester shirt is only a polyester shirt, the cow the leather is made out of also produced milk, meat, and important by-products. While animals raised for fur also produce important oils, biofuel, and eat animal waste products from other industries. 

#fur #fur debate #real fur #fur farming #fur fashion #animal welfare #animal agriculture #incredibly irritating how silly it is to claim polyester is better than wool due to the carbon footprint #but we get multiple products from a sheep as opposed to a plastic shirt!!!!!!