What about fur, silk and down?
Short answer: Fur, silk and down are all killing industries dressed up as fashion. Mink are gassed, foxes electrocuted, silkworms boiled alive, ducks plucked, and none of it needs you.
Three fabrics, three killing methods. Fur is the bluntest. Silk and down hide it better.
Respect for Animals; PETA; RSPCA Knowledgebase
The objection
“Fur’s barbaric, fine, but silk and down are basically harmless. Down’s just a by-product, and silkworms are insects. Where’s the harm?”
The answer
All three end in a dead animal. Fur is the bluntest. More than 100 million animals a year are killed on fur farms after short lives in wire cages. Mink are gassed; foxes and raccoon dogs are electrocuted through the mouth and anus, a method chosen to keep the pelt intact, not to spare the animal. The cruelty is so plain that more than 20 countries have banned fur farming, including the UK, the Netherlands, France and Italy.
Silk hides the killing better. Conventional silk steams or boils the silkworm pupa alive inside its cocoon so the thread stays unbroken: at least 2,500 silkworms killed per pound, by industry estimates of 2,000–3,000.
Down is sold as a “by-product”, and mostly it is: about 98% is collected after slaughter. But that ties your duvet to the duck-meat and foie-gras lines, and an estimated 1–2% is still live-plucked, with feathers torn from conscious birds, causing bleeding and torn skin, and cases documented in China, Hungary and Poland. The Responsible Down Standard exists precisely because that cruelty is real: it bans live-plucking and force-feeding. A certificate patches a slaughter industry; it doesn’t make it clean.
There is no kind way to wear an animal that didn’t want to give it up. Synthetics, plant fibres and recycled insulation do the job without it.
(Wool and leather are covered separately: see the wool and leather file.)