Conservation and fashion: what is the impact of the use of exotic animal skins?

Animal rights advocates may have convinced many fashion houses and their supporters to abandon the use of exotic species in their products, but snake, crocodile and lizard skins are still in high demand. In the latest collections they have returned to the catwalks of Paris, London and New York.

These products are very profitable for luxury brands. A designer bag made of snakeskin can fetch three times more value than one made of cowhide. However, fashion brands like Chanel and Victoria Beckham have banned exotic fur from their collections, and high-end retailers like Selfridges want to follow suit.

Animal rights organizations, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the conservation group Pro Wildlife, want more fashion houses to adopt this decision.

"We don't need wildlife products for luxury fashion," Pro Wildlife biologist Sandra Altherr criticizes DW. "It harms wildlife ecosystems and also causes a lot of pain to animals," she explains.

Exotic skins have returned to the catwalks of Paris, London and New York.

Other conservation groups, by contrast, including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which officially classifies species as endangered, say that luxury brands shouldn't be so quick to get rid of species. exotic skins from their collections. They argue that the use of snakes, crocodiles and other exotic animals can contribute to species conservation if done sustainably.

Appreciating crocodiles and snakes

The demand for exotic animal skins is high. Between 2008 and 2017, the European Union imported more than 10 million skins or skin products, such as bags and belts, from lizards, snakes and crocodiles, according to figures compiled by Pro Wildlife.

from the CITES trade database.

CITES is a multilateral agreement that regulates international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. It prohibits, for example, trade in certain endangered species, but allows trade in less endangered species. For this, however, special permits are needed, which are subject to strict state surveillance.

According to Daniel Natusch of the IUCN, the best way to ensure sustainable trade is to manage and monitor it. To do this, he believes it is important to work with those who trade animals or animal products, and awaken their interest in the conservation of species. Likewise, he believes that it is necessary to cooperate with luxury brands so that the fur they work with comes from responsible sources.

Reptiles are often hunted for fur in poor regions where there are few alternatives to make a living. Natusch argues that a regulated hunting permit allows people who might otherwise have little interest in letting animals live to learn to appreciate them more.

“It is very difficult to convince people to protect crocodiles or poisonous snakes, which are found in the streams where their children bathe,” he says. “This method offers especially poor people the opportunity to attribute value to these animals".

Some claim that the public is less informed about exotic fur than it is about fur in the fashion industry.

Proponents of this conservation model point to Australia's saltwater crocodiles as a huge success, whose numbers have rebounded since the 1970s. Landowners collected their eggs and sent them to breeding farms. In an average billabong, as the Australians call these typical watering holes, there may be around 20 crocodile nests, and each nest may contain 50 or 60 eggs. In 2019, the price per egg in Australia was 26.50 Australian dollars (about 16.72 euros or 18.41 US dollars).

monitoring

In contrast, Pro Wildlife does not support this model. According to the animal protection organization, neither hunters nor farmers make much money in the exotic fur business, but the luxury brands themselves.

"In theory, I agree that sustainable yields could be a good option to generate income for some locals and make wildlife conservation more attractive," Altherr says, but adds that so far he hasn't found any examples that work in this area.

Accurate monitoring is a challenge. CITES permits to trade a species provide information on the origin of the animal, but verification is very difficult.

Due to the large number of skins in trade and the preference for larger animals, Altherr believes that the number taken from the wild is actually much higher than the official annual catch quotas for animals.

wellness issues

Conservation arguments in the exotic fur trade aside, animal rights activists argue that there are serious ethical problems in animal husbandry.

In 2016, PETA released videos from Vietnam about the crowded crocodile farms that supply European luxury goods brands, where the animals were kept in poor conditions. The organization states that the snakes are nailed to trees and skinned alive because this is believed to keep the skin soft and smooth. Some snakes take hours to die.

Between 2008 and 2017, the European Union imported more than 10 million skins.

Johanna Fuoß from PETA Germany criticizes people's ignorance of the exotic fur trade. "People know a lot about the suffering of fur animals. But they are very blind when it comes to exotic skins. They are strange animals to many people and therefore it is more difficult to make it clear to the public that they also deserve good treatment." ", He says.

Natusch, a reptile biologist, has also found farms and processing plants where animals "have not been treated optimally," largely due to a lack of training. He acknowledges that it is sometimes advisable to transport animals with more careful.

But having visited every known processing plant in Southeast Asia, he says he has never seen snakes that have been skinned alive or exposed to other serious animal welfare issues.

IUCN works with industry associations to deliver animal welfare workshops and monitor farms and processing facilities. One of them, the Southeast Asian Reptile Conservation Alliance (SARCA) cooperates with French luxury goods group and Gucci parent company Kering, which bought a python farm in Thailand in 2017 in an effort to ensure that snakes are raised according to ethical criteria.

However, that is not enough for those who oppose the slaughter of animals for the production of clothing.

"There is no way to kill an animal that is species-appropriate or kind," criticizes Fuoß, adding that "sustainably"-sourced fur means nothing to the animal. Animals always suffer, even if the skins come from sustainable sources. "Millions of animals are killed each year by the exotic fur trade and every animal undergoes the same agonizing slaughter process," she laments.

(ar/cp)

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