5 things you might not realise are cruel

Doing the research for Living Cruelty Free, I was shocked to discover there were things I had no idea involved so much animal cruelty.

1. Merino wool - I wrongly assumed sheep were simply sheared. Imagine you have chunks of your flesh hacked off. Would it hurt? Of course it would, yet this is what happens to most sheep in Australia in a process known as "mulesing." Farmers do this to prevent the animals getting fly strike. 

The worst think about this is its needless because farmers can breed fly strike resistant sheep but they refuse to do this. Despite pressure from top clothing stores like Next and Marks and Spencer who readily sell merino products but said they would try and use only wool from sheep not subjected to this abhorrent practice, the practice of mulesing still goes on.

2. Chocolate - To feed the inexhaustible demand for milk chocolate you need milk and this means male calves go without. They can't produce milk so they are often killed or dumped in veal crates.

For an alternative to milk chocolate, go for dark chocolate or carob, which tastes like chocolate and comes from a plant. I've read in places that it can't compete with real chocolate, but it can IMHO. The good news is that unlike real chocolate, its NOT harmful to dogs or cats. 

3. Horse racing - Those horses love to run and jump don't they? Maybe in the wild they do, but with a jockey on their back, kicking into their sides and even using a whip, somehow I doubt it.

Horses are pushed to extremes, often beyond their endurance, and unlike the recent case of Fox Hunt in the $1 Dubai Gold Cup whose leg snapped, when they die or get injured it's rarely reported. Well, we can't have the enjoyment of race goers diminished by the site of a majestic animal being shot.

4. Fake/Faux Fur – Real fur is such a hard sell that it’s been passed off as fake in garments like coats, hats and waistcoats. Quite often this "fake fur" comes from China which kills animals like dogs and cats to produce the so called fake or faux fur.

Personally, I would never wear faux fur or anything fake that resembles fur, as I strongly believe that it may inadvertently encourage people to wear real fur because it looks so real. That said, of course I would rather people wore the fake kind than the real kind. 

5. Free range eggs – The boy chicks can’t lay eggs and are killed. This is done by crushing or gassing. If it’s crushing the method used is called IMD - Instantaneous Mechanical Destruction. This involves dropping handfuls of babies alive into a mincing machine in a process.

Hens also have their beaks trimmed – an extremely painful process using a hot metal blade. This has been likened to having a limb amputated.

Have yourself a cruelty free Christmas



Whatever Pink's buying this Christmas it won't be any of these.

When shopping for gifts this Christmas it can be difficult to find products that are cruelty free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
Of course, we all know how to avoid things, but what about those sneaky nasties that creep into things?

Here are the most common ones to watch out for -

PU leather, this is definately fake, right? Wrong.

1. PU Leather

I recently wanted to buy my brother a case for his iPad and I was delighted when I found one that wasn't made of leather. Then I got it and discovered it was made with PU leather. There'd been no mention of that in the Amazon description, so it was sent right back.

What is PU leather?

It's a mainly man-made material with a layer of polyurethane that is applied to the surface and then embossed to give it a shiny look. A layer of real leather is often used (sometimes its PVC that's used) so it's not cruelty free.

With more and more of the world's PU leather coming from China where animal (and human) life is cheap, I always assume that anything with PU leather does contain part of an animal carcass.

Tip - some stores call it fake leather, but this can be very misleading. It's usually found in items like handbags, suitcases, furniture, cases for electronic items like Kindles, iPads, iPhones, jackets, coats, belts, hats, gloves etc...

2. Cosmetics that say they are cruelty free

I'm always amazed when I go around stores and look at the cosmetics and toiletries available and how many of them say things like "not tested on animals," "We're against animal testing" and have the audacity to use a bunny symbol that looks like the Leaping Bunny logo (shown above)  although it's most certainly not.

If you're buying toiletries/cosmetics as presents make sure they are BUAV approved. This is the only way to guarantee that neither the finished product or ingredients have been tested on animals by the makers or their suppliers.

3. Goose fat on roast potatoes

These days we might not have time to cook or we may be visiting someone this holiday season, which means eating away from home or eating out. Roast potatoes should be safe, but at this time of year many people cook them in goose fat, which is pretty gross.

Stores may also sell them in goose fat.

4. Merino wool

I treat merino wool like sheepskin because the sheep it comes from have chunks of flesh cut off, without aesthetic so that they don't get something called fly strike. The Australian farmers who breed these sheep would rather carry out this cruel practice called mulesing than breed fly strike resistant sheep.

5. Real fur labeled as faux

It seems incredible doesn't it that real fur could be getting labeled as faux fur, but that's what's happened.

Years back there was a scandal when it was discovered that snoozing cat and dog figures that were sold in stores through out the world, were made from real cat and dog fur. These weren't labeled as containing real fur.

There was another scandal when it emerged clothes stores in American were selling garments with real fur without labeling them as fur.

FACT - People in the UK were shocked to discover that fake garments they were buying that made no mention of fur such as jackets, boots and gloves contained the fur of cats and dogs. Thanks to a high profile campaign backed by Paul McCartney and then wife Heather Mills (25,000 signatures were collected in just one online petition), cat and dog fur imports were banned in the EU in 2008.

Although cat and dog fur is banned in America, it still manages to get into the country.  

FACT - In 2002, the USA banned the importing, exporting, sale and production of cat and dog fur. This came about after stores unknowingly sold cat and dog fur in jackets. Note – the fur ban only applies to cat and dog fur and not any other type.

*The facts above are from my book, Living Cruelty Free, which is available now on Kindle. 
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