Animal Aid

Is silk ethical?

A vegan recently asked me if the wearing of silk is ethical.

Animal Aid is opposed to the production and wearing of silk and silk products, as it causes the death of millions of silkworms. And of course, with so many other luxury fabrics on the market, including synthetic silks, there is no justification for wearing a material that causes suffering.

'Silkworm' is the generic term given to the silk-producing larvae of any of several species of moth. Silkworms secrete a fluid that solidifies on contact with air and turns into a thread that they use to spin around themselves to form a cocoon. If left alone, the pupae (cocooned worm) develops into a moth and emerges from the cocoon between 10 and 16 days later.

In China and Japan, silkworms have the thread from their cocoons reeled mechanically. To prevent the silkworm pupae from eating through their cocoons and damaging the silk threads, they are killed by immersion in boiling water, steaming, drying in an oven, electrocution or being microwaved. The thread is then reeled.

In Thailand, silk is hand reeled from Thai moth cocoons containing the live pupae. The cocoons are placed in almost boiling water to loosen the end of the thread for reeling. The pupae inside are frequently eaten by the workers.

1 kg of raw silk = approx 500 silkworms (80kg of cocoons) + 200 kg of mulberry leaves to feed them.

Posted: September 25, 2007 Archives - RSS Feed - permanent link - 0 comments