Victoria’s Secret & Co drops cashmere
The company Victoria's Secret & Co made a decision to no longer use cashmere in its products. The ban will apply to Victoria's Secret and PINK branded items sold worldwide. The company is believed to currently operate in more than 60 countries, including India, the US and the UK.
Organization PETA managed to make the company's managers think again about usage of cashmere, and showed them evidence of the cruelty that goats go through in the cashmere industry. Suffering involves painful brushing to remove their hair, which causes superficial injuries. “Victoria’s Secret’s decision is a win for the countless gentle goats who will be spared the agonizing ordeal of someone ripping their hair out,” Tracy Reiman, PETA’s executive vice president said in a statement. PETA urges everyone to help goats keep their coat by choosing vegan materials.
Cashmere - a material that is considered a luxury, is a product of violence. Cashmere is obtained from the fleece of a special kind of goat, and the price paid for this material, to end up on store shelves, is too high and bloody. Despite the 'greenwashing' marketing, 'cashmere combing', as it is called, is a very cruel method of obtaining it. Marketing for cashmere products claims that the goats are gently 'combed' for their fleece and that the process is painless and even pleasant. In reality, sharp combs with metal teeth tear the fleece of the goats, that are tied up and unable to move. Secret footage shows goats screaming in pain during this process. Four goats are need to be combed, for just one sweater and as is the case with wool, the goats are killed when they are no longer able to produce high quality fleece.
Goats are incredibly clever, inquisitive and communicative individuals who can recognise positive and negative emotions in the calls of others. Normally, goats live to be about twelve years old, sometimes even more. When farmed, exploited, and ultimately killed for cashmere, goats live far short of this age. In Australia, the industry states that female cashmere goats are slaughtered at about four or five years old, males often sooner.
Asos, Mexx, and 39 other fashion companies have also dropped cashmere in favor of animal-free alternatives, such as Tencel.
Source: Collective Fashion Justice
