Sheep in India contribute to our wool consumption. Sheared regularly, long before their natural life span, when they no longer produce sufficient wool to span, when they no longer produce sufficient wool to be economical, they are sent off for slaughter. It is obvious that the meat industry is as dependant on the wool industry and vice-versa. Animals are killed for their meat and wool, therefore wool definitely is not a by-product of the ‘meat’ trade. The Karakul (means black rose) lamb hair. The mother, the ewe, is hit over a hundred times with an iron rod to induce premature birth. The lamb is then skinned alive in front of her eyes so that its fur remains soft and curly.

Young Karakul lambs are boiled alive by shepherds to produce ‘kid’ gloves because that tenderises the skin. It takes at least 30 ‘common’ leopard cats to make one full-length coat. White caps or white fur trimmings on children’s clothes and fancy bags. Rabbit farms, now promoted by our government, are just killing farms where the little rabbit is kept in a small cage till it grows to a certain size and is then electrocuted.In certain farms, they are even strangled manually, so that their fur is not spoilt by their blood.

ALL THAT GLITTERS!

Silver and gold foil, or varkh, adds glitter to mithai, supari, pan, fruit and is used in Ayurvedic medicines and on deities in many Jain temples. Varkh is also used in flavoured syrups.

Varkh is not derived from an animal source. However, a crucial material of animal origin, ox-gut is used in its manufacture. The ox-gut (intestine); smeared with blood and mucus, is pulled out from the slaughtered animal by the butcher at the slaughterhouse, and sold for the specific purpose.

Layers of ox-gut are placed along with alternate layers of silver or gold strips and made in the form of a thick book of upto 171 leaves. These are then placed in a calf-leather pouch and hammered for at least 8 hours to produce the extremely thin foil.To make a single booklet of 171 sheets, the gut from 3 cows is used.

ALTERNATIVES

d Buy cotton, synthetics, ramie, flannel, and other non-animal fibres. Their advantages are that they are not as likely to shrink, they usually cost less, they retain their bright colours longer, and they don’t contribute to cruelty.

For extreme warmth use what the Mount Everest climbers consistently

choose: Fiberfill II, Polarguard, and Thinsulate. NO ONE NEEDS TO STEAL FROM ANIMALS TO BE WARM OR TO LOOK GOOD.