The British Fashion Council (BFC) is yet to reflect the changing times and British values by committing to a cruelty-free future. Join us in urging it to ban environmentally destructive wildlife skins, leather, and feathers from its catwalks.
Leather Destroys the Planet
The BFC has acknowledged that we’re facing a climate catastrophe, yet it has so far failed to implement a ban on environmentally destructive leather products. Animal agriculture, which includes the leather industry, is responsible for nearly one-fifth of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, and turning skin into leather requires significant energy and dangerous chemicals, including formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and cyanide-based oils, dyes, and finishes.
Cruelty on the Catwalk
At slaughterhouses, cows killed for leather may be skinned and dismembered while they’re still conscious – after already having endured castration, tail-docking, and dehorning, without any painkillers, on farms.
Numerous PETA exposés have revealed rampant cruelty within the wildlife skins industry. Crocodiles are skinned alive, snakes are impaled with nails and smashed with hammers, and lizards are decapitated – all just for accessories.
Ostriches, ducks, and geese are live-plucked or slaughtered for their down and feathers. A PETA Asia investigation into the down industry connected major brands like H&M to footage of ducks being stabbed in the neck.
The Future Is Vegan
Copenhagen Fashion Week has already banned fur, and several other events have extended their fur ban to include other cruelly obtained materials – the organisers of Helsinki Fashion Week have banned leather, and Melbourne Fashion Week now prohibits wild bird feathers.
Sustainable and animal-friendly vegan leather can be made from the prickly pear cactus, mushroom, apple, pineapple, and other innovative materials.
Take Action
The BFC has yet to prohibit the skin of tortured animals from appearing on its catwalks. Please join us in calling on the council to adopt an official policy banning wildlife skins, leather, and feathers immediately.