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When the birds are about seven months old, they are packed into tiny bamboo cages and sent for slaughter. The feathers are collected from mature peacocks when they are shed, or when they’re slaughtered. Chinese farms offer the feathers, if bought in bulk, for as little as 10 pence each.Peacocks tend to shed their feathers naturally in a process called molting, which means they aren’t killed. The shedding process begins every year after mating season, between February and August. The feathers are then gathered and sold by vendors.“Keeping or selling feathers shed naturally is not wrong or illegal. But, there is no way to prove it if a peacock is killed for the same.
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Do peacocks get killed for their feathers?
Peacocks tend to shed their feathers naturally in a process called molting, which means they aren’t killed. The shedding process begins every year after mating season, between February and August. The feathers are then gathered and sold by vendors.
Is buying peacock feathers cruel?
“Keeping or selling feathers shed naturally is not wrong or illegal. But, there is no way to prove it if a peacock is killed for the same.
Are peacock feathers plucked?
Forcible plucking of peacock feathers is leading to large number of deaths of the majestic national bird of India, experts have warned. Domestic trade in peacock feather is allowed only as long as the feathers are naturally shed by the bird.
Are peacock feathers vegan?
Peacocks would sit on trees and shed feathers, we would collect them. Commercially sold peacock feathers are never cruelty free. My aunt had peacocks at her farmhouse and had collected a bunch of majestic looking feathers over the years which she had preserved well.
Is killing of peacock legal?
The hunting and killing of the peacock, India’s national bird, is prohibited by law. According to the Indian Forest Act of 1972, those found guilty under this law can be jailed for up to seven years.
What happens if you pluck a peacock feather?
Kolkata: Forcible plucking of peacock feathers is leading to large number of deaths of the majestic national bird of India, experts have warned. Domestic trade in peacock feather is allowed only as long as the feathers are naturally shed by the bird. “But the shedding cycle comes only once in the monsoon months.
How can you tell if feathers are cruelty-free?
How to Tell If Feathers Are Cruelty-Free? The only way for feathers to be 100% cruelty-free is to collect them as a bird molts, known as molt-harvesting. Alternatively, all products made with ethically sourced feathers have a badge of honor from a globally recognized certification body.
How are feathers harvested?
The process usually involves scalding the birds’ bodies in hot water for one to three minutes so the feathers are easier to pull out. The body feathers can then be plucked (often by hand), after which the down is removed by hand or machine.
Are feathers vegan friendly?
Birds like geese, ducks, ostriches, peacocks, and many others are often farmed and prematurely slaughtered to produce meat, eggs, leather, feathers, and down. For this reason, outside of some rare natural occurrences, feathers and down aren’t vegan-friendly.
How many peacock feathers can you keep at home?
Your home under no circumstances shall be home to another living organism such as snakes, lizards, etc. not only are these poisonous but also can leave your home unhygienic. In order to keep them away from your living area, place 2-3 peacock feathers on the door of your house.
What are peacock feathers used for?
Peacock Feathers have been used for healing for tens of thousands of years in every culture throughout time. They are said to carry Spiritual Healing Energy that can be used to assist people seeking balance and harmony in their lives.
Is it cruel to wear feathers?
Today, according to animal rights organizations, the ethics surrounding feather use is cut-and-dry. “Feathers in fashion are just like the use of fur or the use of leather in fashion,” says Byrne. “It results in cruelty to animals.
Are ostriches killed to make feather dusters?
No ostriches are killed or harmed for their feathers. The feathers in our dusters are collected naturally from loved and properly cared-for ostriches. To keep the feathers in the duster in their best condition, do not tap the duster to get the dust out after use.
Is live plucking common?
The most recent case of live plucking occurred in 2016 where several farms in China were exposed by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA US, 2016). Birds may be live plucked multiple times before slaughter. However, accurate statistics on the extent of live plucking are lacking.
What are peacock feathers used for?
Peacock Feathers have been used for healing for tens of thousands of years in every culture throughout time. They are said to carry Spiritual Healing Energy that can be used to assist people seeking balance and harmony in their lives.
Why do peacocks spread their feathers for humans?
This spreading is a part of the ritual involving courtship display. The peacock bird spreads its tail feathers in a semicircle and fans it to make it more appealing to its potential mating partner.
Do peacocks use their feathers to scare predators?
When the male peacock spreads his tail feathers to create a spectacular fan of blue and green, the illusion of large penetrating eyes are displayed. Not only do these eyes attract mates, but they also scare away potential predators, like snakes or large wild cats.
Why do female peacocks spread their feathers?
As part of the peafowl courtship ritual, a peacock spreads his feathers and displays them for the peahens, seeking to attract his mates for the season. Peacocks need to collect a small harem of several peahens each year and the peahens are the ones who pick them, not the other way around.
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Were peacocks plucked alive to make Burberry’s £22,000 coat?
The cruel reality of fashion’s coolest coat: Were peacocks plucked alive to make Burberry’s £22,000 trench?
The price tag is an extravagant £22,000, the coat itself the flagship item in Burberry’s spring-summer collection.
But this is no ordinary trench coat. Made of peacock feathers, and worn recently by American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, it is the iconic British fashion label’s most talked-about garment of the moment.
‘ Never mind owning it, I’d give anything to see it,’ writes one influential blogger. Another adds: ‘This trench is setting the fashion world on fire.’
Unethical? Burberry’s £22,000 trench and its creator, designer Christopher Bailey (left)
As for its designer, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey, he insists that his intention was to bring ‘joy’ through his work. ‘I wanted to make people smile,’ he says. ‘I wanted the collection to feel joyous. That’s how things are going to get better, by making people smile.’
Unfortunately, the emotions emanating from Burberry headquarters in London this week have been of a rather more sombre hue.
A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that the provenance of the coat is not what Burberry would have had the world believe. Until recently, their website — on which the coats are offered for sale — has said that the peacock feathers used to make the garment came from birds raised on farms in India. It stated: ‘100 per cent farmed golden peacock feathers, India.’
When I spoke online with a sales representative called Megan, she reasserted the claim. ‘I can confirm that the beautiful piece is 100 per cent farmed golden peacock feathers from India,’ she said.
All of which sounds eminently possible, since the natural habitat of this bird is the Indian subcontinent. There is, however, one insurmountable problem: it is illegal to export peacock feathers from India.
Not only is it that country’s national bird, sacrosanct to the Hindu religion, but its numbers are also under serious pressure from expanding agricultural operations and poachers.
Rather than waiting for the peacocks to moult their tail feathers as they do naturally every year, the poachers kill them and rip out the feathers, which are then smuggled for sale abroad.
So, the news that Burberry claimed to source these feathers from India was met with astonishment by local animal rights campaigners and politicians.
Maneka Gandhi, a high-profile member of the Indian parliament, was so concerned she called for an immediate investigation into Burberry.
Beautiful: Peacocks have wonderful iridescent green and blue feathers but are Burberry being cruel?
Brand: Romeo Beckham (far left) is one of the faces of this season’s Burberry campaign
‘Peacocks are killed in their thousands in India and smuggled abroad to be made into fashion accessories,’ says Mrs Gandhi. ‘Regardless of how they are collected, it’s unethical to wear them as it encourages illegal trade.’
Jaya Sinha, a leading expert on Indian wildlife law and director of Humane Society International, adds: ‘Any fashion house including peacocks or animals in its products is setting a bad example.’
When I contacted Burberry to ask how it was able to export feathers legally for the coat from India, I was initially told the company had no further information on the garment.
Within 24 hours, however, I was contacted by public relations firm Brunswick on behalf of Burberry.
They said that a mistake had been made. The feathers, it now transpired, had come from a farm in China and not from India — at the start of a tortuous journey. From China they went to a dealer in New York. The dealer in New York then exported them to India.
In India, seamstresses sewed them onto fabric, which was then exported to Italy, where the coat was finished by a company called Zamasport before ending up on the catwalk in London.
A Burberry spokeswoman says: ‘We have policies in place with all our suppliers, designed to ensure the highest standards of ethical trading throughout our business.
‘ Burberry’s terms and conditions of purchase that govern our relationship with vendors require them (and their subcontractors) to comply with the Ethical Trading Policy as well as compliance with all local labour and environmental laws.
‘ A very limited number of items has been made using peacock feathers. This is not mass production, nor is Burberry encouraging widespread use.’
It is understood that fewer than 20 coats have been made.
While that may solve the mystery of the Indian-farmed feathers, and clarifies that Burberry have not acted illegally, it will do little to assuage the concerns of animal rights campaigners.
Faces: Model Cara Delevingne and actor Eddie Redmayne have both fronted campaigns for the brand
Because although Burberry insists it ‘will not use down or feathers if there is any concern that it has been produced using unacceptable treatment of animals’, China has a woeful record of factory farming and cruelty when it comes to producing animal-based products for the fashion industry.
Farmed birds are no exception. In 2009, campaigners exposed how down used in jackets and other items was being ripped from the bodies of live geese by Chinese suppliers.
This is because the process of taking feathers from carcasses before washing and drying them can affect their quality. The most valuable down was that hand-stripped from live birds.
Although the plucking process often leaves the birds with open flesh wounds, the down re-grows in months. The birds could therefore be ‘live-plucked’ two or three times before being slaughtered for meat.
Following the investigation, Swedish furniture corporation IKEA cancelled an order from China for down-filled furniture after verifying that the down was from live-plucked birds.
Other retailers admitted that they could not rule out the chance that their products contained live-plucked down, saying the supply chain was so complicated it was impossible to say with certainty where their feathers originated.
In this context, there are inevitable concerns about peacock farming in China, especially since the trade in birds there has boomed recently.
Farmers have boasted that farming peacocks is ‘easier than chicken and more profitable than pigs’. Peacocks are said to eat less than chickens, and are prized for their feathers and meat.
As a result, most Chinese provinces boast dozens of peacock farms, with some of the larger ones boasting flocks of up to 10,000 birds.
One peacock is typically kept with four or five peahens in a space as small as five square metres.
When the birds are about seven months old, they are packed into tiny bamboo cages and sent for slaughter. The feathers are collected from mature peacocks when they are shed, or when they’re slaughtered.
Chinese farms offer the feathers, if bought in bulk, for as little as 10 pence each. But that cost will multiply many times over once the costs associated with exporting them are included.
‘ Anyone with an ounce of compassion should steer clear of these products and opt for any of the many fabulous, humane, synthetic fashions available,’ says a spokesman for animal rights charity PETA.
If a Peacock Loses His Tail Feathers, Do They Grow Back?
” ” Male peafowl – aka peacocks – shed their glorious feathers annually. Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
A peacock without his feathers is like a king without a crown, a tiger without its stripes, a cowboy without his boots. The male of the peafowl species, the peacock has long symbolized beauty, regality and pride. Like many male birds, the peacock’s appearance far outshines that of the demure peahen, and he showcases these famous feathers to drive those chicks wild.
But every year, toward the end of summer, peacocks finish shaking their tail feathers, and their stunning plumage gradually falls off. This shedding process, called molting, is a common part of most birds’ lives. Feathers can wear out and lose their functionality over time, and since these feathers aren’t self-regenerating, birds must replace them entirely. This molting process is the same type of biological change that happens when snakes shed their skins. Hormones trigger the beginning of the molting process, which is timed to occur after the mating season to allow for the energy required to grow the new feathers [source: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology].
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In about seven months – in time for the peafowl mating season to come back around – peacocks will regrow their plumes longer and fuller. The peacock’s tail reaches peak development around age 6 [source: Hopkins]. In fact, mature peacock trains can extend more than 5 feet (1.7 meters) in length [source: National Zoo]. Because of the size boost from the feathers, peacocks are one of the largest flying birds.
When the old feathers drop, however, people don’t let them go to waste. Stretching back to the Phoenicians during biblical times, peacocks were taken from their native residences in India and surrounding countries and transplanted to royal homes [source: National Zoo]. Different peafowl species feature blue, green, white, light brown or purple coloring, but India’s blue and green bird is the most common. There, the peacock is not only the highly protected national bird, but also is considered sacred within the Hindu religion. Even today, commercial peacock breeders will save the molts to sell as the demand for these stylish feathers in the home décor and fashion industries endures.
Peacock Tail Feathers
At the top of each peacock train feather, you’ll see a round, jewel-toned ocellus or eyespot. Ocellus comes from the Latin word “oculus,” which means “eye.” These iridescent spots add the exotic dimension to the plumes.
Peacock tail feathers are specially structured to ensure that they reveal each brilliant ocellus whenever the bird fans them out. This is accomplished by combining multiple layers of feathers on top of each other, called upper-tail coverlets [source: National Zoo]. To the naked eye, the ocelli appear different shades of blues and greens, but in actuality, the feather fibers have a black pigment. It’s the different angles of the nanoparticles within those fibers that catch and reflect the sunlight to create iridescence [source: Milius].
In rare circumstances, peacocks may be born without any pigment. These albino peacocks are entirely white, although their feather structure remains the same. Even the ocelli are easily detectable.
During mating season, the males clump together in territorial groups called leks. Peahens will stroll through the leks, almost as though window-shopping for a new beau. To grab the females’ attention, the peacocks will display their full regalia, stepping around excitedly and shaking their plumes. Ornithologists refer to that dating dance as shivering.
Charles Darwin had speculated that the number and brilliance of those ocelli determine how successfully peacocks will attract peahens. Due to this form of sexual selection, he proposed that peacocks gradually evolved with more ornate trains to appeal to peahens.
But a 2008 study in Japan challenged the long-held belief behind the ornamentation of peacock trains, asserting that the more shake a peacock shows toward a peahen, the greater the likelihood of snagging her. Because of that interaction, the researchers theorized that it is perhaps this movement and mating calls – not the famous ocelli – that influence attraction the most [source: Viegas]. During a seven-year study of peafowl mating rituals, the researchers found that even the peacocks with the drabber fan and fewer ocelli hooked up as much as the showboats. But going up against Darwin isn’t a simple feat. The scientific jury is still out on whether we can dismiss peacock ocelli’s role with luring the ladies in.
It’s a crazy world out there. Stay up to date (or go down really fun rabbit holes) with our newsletter!
How Peacocks Got Their Spots According to Greek mythology, peacocks got their spots thanks to a woman named Io. She was a priestess to Hera, the wife of Zeus. Famous for his wandering eye, Zeus took a fancy to Io and turned her into a heifer in order to disguise her, thus protecting her from the wrath of jealous Hera. Hera was onto his ruse and tricked Zeus into giving her the heifer/Io as a present. Once she had the heifer in her possession, Hera appointed Argus, a man covered with eyes, to guard Io. Zeus then sent a minion to rescue the priestess, who killed Argus in the process. As a tribute to Argus and his many eyes, Hera bestowed the “eyespot” onto the peacock.
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Originally Published: Oct 21, 2019
Are your peacock feathers illegal?
While it’s tough to know if a feather was shed or plucked, forest dept’s upcoming policy points out dos, don’ts regarding its sale
While killing peacocks is illegal, the trade of their shed feathers is not. Many exploit this legal loophole, and some traders kill the national bird of India for their grand plumage. However, this may be a thing of the past as the forest department is in the process of framing a policy regarding the sale of peacock feathers.
“Keeping or selling feathers shed naturally is not wrong or illegal. But, there is no way to prove it if a peacock is killed for the same. Therefore, we are working on a policy to regulate this, in which we have to maintain a balance so that innocents do not get caught if they pick up or keep a shed feather. However, at the same time, we will ensure that those who kill peacocks or pluck feathers are kept in check,” said Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of forests, Pune division.
Currently, the act prohibits killing the bird or exporting these tail feathers or articles made from them. However, it still allows domestic trade under the assumption that these are naturally shed. While there is no data regarding peacock population which is said to be dwindling by the government, in 1991, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) did the only stock taking of the peacock population in the country. According to their report, it was found that the country had only 50 per cent of overall peacock population left in comparison to what existed just after India got independence. It is also believed that this population has plummeted due to the rise in poaching and habitat loss.
“There is a huge gap in the demand and supply of peacock feathers. There should be no trade of feathers as it is not possible to trace whether these are naturally shed feathers or are collected by killing the bird. There was a ban on trade proposed by the ministry in 2013, but it has not been introduced yet,” said Amruta Ubale, founder of Animal Equality in India.
Peacocks often use the tail feathers to attract females. However, at the end of the summer, they shed their tail feathers. This process is called molting. Feathers can wear out and lose their functionality over time and since they are not regenerating, birds shed them. This generally happens after mating season and subsequently they grow again by the next mating season.
Highlighting the technical aspects, zoologist Dr Sudhakar Kurhade, honorary wildlife warden of Ahmednagar, said, “There is a possibility of getting the DNA of the bird from the feather. However, it is not possible to identify whether it has been pluked or shed.”
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