Associated to encourage future clothing-industry leaders and consumers to embrace sustainable, humane, and non-animal materials

In advance of World Animal Day, PETA India conducted a talk session on 3^rd October 2019, at JD Institute of Fashion Technology in Delhi to urge design students to take fashion into the future by using only eco-friendly fabrics rather than leather, down feather, wool, or other materials cruelly derived from animals. 

Generally, animals killed for leather are often transported in trucks in masses, that their bones break or they die en route. Sheep are commonly beaten, stamped on, and mutilated for wool. Most animals killed for their fur like rabbits spend their lives inside cramped cages, where they frantically pace back and forth, gnaw on the bars, and mutilate themselves. And in the down industry, birds’ throats are slit and some of the animals are scalded to death in defeathering tanks, often while still conscious. Silkworms used for silk are boiled or gassed alive inside their cocoons, which causes the cocoons to unravel so that workers can obtain the silk threads.

Leather made up of animal skin can easily be replaced by non-animal materials – such as pineapple leaves, grapes, apples, mushrooms, or cork and countless other plant-based and recycled materials.

“Awareness has the power to create a Change. Being a design Institute for more than three decades, our students have the privilege to get trained and skilled in the field of design by Industry stalwarts. With great designers come great responsibilities, it is the reason why no animal-derived materials are ever used in the graduating collections of our students. If we want to abolish cruelty in the animal world, let’s start the change by educating students”. said, Rupal Dalal, executive director of JD Institute of Fashion Technology.