An animal welfare organisation has published their second annual report on animal welfare in the fashion industry, exposing the abuses of global clothing brands.
The report, conducted by Four Paws International, builds upon a survey conducted by the group earlier this year. In the survey, one in three consumers said they were significantly concerned about the animal welfare standards of the fashion brands they knew and loved.
For most major fashion brands, however, animal welfare does not seem to be such a priority.
According to the new report, less than a third of brands buy wool or down from animal friendly-certified sources and more than half (57%) used sources that had no animal welfare policy in place at all.
“Our report shows that despite high community expectations for animal welfare, most fashion brands still know extraordinarily little of the conditions faced by animals within their supply chains,” said Jessica Medcalf, Global Corporate Engagement Manager at Four Paws International.
“Brands talk the talk about caring for animals, but dig a little deeper and you’ll often find weak or patchy animal welfare policies or none at all.”
For the report, Four Paws joined forces with Good on You, a brand rating platform, to rate 111 international fashion brands from different sectors.
The worst performing market segment were luxury brands, such as Prada and Louis Vuitton, which averaged a percentage score of 23% on Good on You’s scale (“Not Good Enough”, according to their ratings chart). This was due to a combination of low transparency in their process and wildlife exploitation.
Another factor in the low rating of many brands was their lack of a firm time-bound commitment to improve their animal welfare policies.
Following the luxury brands were fast-fashion labels with an average score of 53%.
However, 14% of the brands included in the study have since improved their animal welfare rating following the first report’s release in 2020, and the number of brands that have formal policies in place (57%) is more than double the figure of the previous report.
The best-rated market segments were “Sustainability Champions” and “Outdoor”, which scored an average of 76% and 71% respectively.
“The best-performing brands show us not only how the industry can do much better, but also that real change happens when each of us takes action,” said Gordon Renouf, Co-Founder of Good on You.
“This report is one more way that Good on You’s ratings of thousands of fashion brands are empowering people all over the world to enact their values and buy better.”
