Whether you're
hitting the wintry slopes or the windy streets, cruelty-free armor
against the elements is colorful, comfy, and fashionable. New
ultra-lightweight materials are keeping people warmer and drier—not
to mention saving sheep and geese!
|
 |
|
Most wool-bearing sheep are bred to form unnaturally wrinkly skin that collects urine and maggots-which sometimes eat sheep alive. In a cruel and misguided effort to prevent this, farmers slice huge chunks of skin off the sheep's hind legs around the tail in an effort to make the skin form a smooth scar, but sometimes maggots get into the wound before it can heal. Lambs are castrated and have their tails amputated without anesthetics. Sheep are sheared before they would naturally shed their coats, so many die of exposure. Unwanted lambs and sheep are sent to slaughter.
Wool isn't so hot at keeping people warm, either. It's scratchy and heavy, and if it gets wet, it stays wet. Many people are allergic to wool-it aggravates common skin conditions like eczema and attracts allergens like cat dander and dust mites.
Click
here to learn more about wool's woes.
For more information and to view the mulesing video go to SaveTheSheep.com.
Ducks and geese are plucked repeatedly to supply the soft underfeathers used as filling in down coats, comforters, and other products. Four or five times in their lives, they will writhe in pain and fear as a plucker tears out 5 ounces of their feathers. After the last plucking, the birds have five weeks to grow more feathers before they are sent through a machine that plucks their longest feathers. They are then sent to slaughter.
Apart from the cruelty involved in its production, down has drawbacks as a cold-weather insulator that synthetic insulators do not have: It is expensive and loses its insulating ability when wet.
Click here for the complete lowdown on down.
Heavy, bulky wool can't hold a candle to revolutionary new fabrics like Gore-Tex, Thermolite, Thinsulate, and Polartec Wind Pro, which has four times the wind resistance of wool and also wicks away moisture. Primaloft, a soft, downlike fiber used in coats, gloves and comforters, stays warm even when wet, unlike down. Tencel, a natural fabric made from wood pulp, is a breathable, durable alternative to wool for men's dress suits.
- It can take more than a thousand yards of wool yarn to make just one sweater.
- Shearling isn't just the fleece of a sheared sheep-it is also the sheep's skin.
- Patagonia and other outdoor outfitters sell polyester fleece jackets and vests made from recycled soda bottles.
- The quest for new and improved fibers is not all that new. In the 1930s, synthetic fibers such as Vicara and Ardil were made from corn and peanuts. Henry Ford, an ardent soy fan, even wore a suit made from soy fibers.
Visit the PETA Mall to find clothing, accessories, and housewares made from cruelty-free fabrics.
|
|
