Animal Ethics and Welfare in the Fashion and Lifestyle Industries

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the ongoing ethical discussion regarding the use of animals in the fashion and lifestyle industries and to address the attitude and behavioral practices currently being used in the field of animal production and animal welfare. The aim is to investigate, both theoretically and empirically, why it is necessary to apply and implement ethical standards and to address the challenges being faced in how animals are used in these industries. The impact on the environment, a general lack of awareness, and research into ethical consumption will also be explored. By questioning these issues, a better understanding of the contradiction in the ethical production and consumption of animals will emerge. This paper challenges today’s decision makers in the fashion and lifestyle industries and argues that despite recent studies in this area, producers, designers, and other decision makers still lack knowledge of what must be addressed to sustain responsible production and consumption practices. The intention is not to write a dissertation on ethics but to attempt to generate interest in the issues that use and take advantage of other living beings, specifically nonhuman animals. The intent is to do this not through negative images, which are otherwise so easily available, but through the prism of impartiality. The goal is to get animal ethics and welfare on the agenda in the fashion and lifestyle industries and to qualify these issues on the same level as human rights and environmental issues. That all decision makers in the future will take responsibility and in turn improve the conditions these animals live in, while supporting the consumption needs of human beings, is the intention and purpose of this chapter.