Coventry University’s Fashion Department Implements Animal-Friendly Material Policy in Collaboration With PETA
17.10.2024
Coventry – Following communications with PETA about how animals suffer for clothing, shoes, and accessories, Coventry University banned the use of fur, wild-animal skins, angora, and ostrich feathers throughout its entire fashion department.
“The staff team in the fashion suite of courses at Coventry University are passionate about sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry,” says Coventry University’s school of art and design curriculum lead, Rebecca Ryder-Caddy. “We have worked for years with organisations including PETA to ensure we highlight innovation in materials, processes and business practice to students so they can make informed decisions leading to ethical and sustainable outcomes. We look forward to working with the next generation of students on their journey to becoming leaders in a more ethical fashion industry.”
“Coventry University’s new directive will allow fashion students, many of whom already refuse to work with animal-derived materials, to focus their talents on creating high-quality, luxurious animal-friendly designs,” says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “PETA thanks the university for sparing foxes, rabbits, and birds immense pain and suffering, and we’re calling on other fashion programmes to take note and follow suit.”
PETA exposés have revealed that animals killed for fur are caged, bashed on the head, and electrocuted and that ostriches are forcibly restrained and electrically stunned before their throats are slit for their feathers. For angora, rabbits are typically kept inside small, filthy cages and endure an agonising plucking ordeal several times a year before being killed. In the reptile-skins industry, snakes are hit on the head with hammers and impaled with hooks while still moving.
Meanwhile, consumer demand for animal- and planet-friendly materials is on the rise and more and more designers are moving away from animal skins, choosing instead to embrace exciting vegan textile options, such as leathers made from pineapple, apple, mushroom, and cactus as well as fur made from corn.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
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