Animal Products

Animal products are any products produced by or taken from an animal, especially animals raised or slaughtered for that purpose. (Fossil fuels and fertilizer with animal remains are generally not considered animal products.) Though the term is most frequently used to refer to foods, because of the number of people in the world who avoid animal products or avoid them in certain circumstances—from vegetarians and vegans to those keeping kosher or halal diets—the term is also applicable to the many other products derived from animals.

Animal fibers, for instance, include silk, fur, and feathers. Animal fibers vary greatly, as demonstrated by the difference between the two most common animal fibers used commercially: wool from domestic sheep and silk from the mulberry silkworm. Even wool can vary dramatically according to the species of sheep (or other animal: the hair of some species of goats, alpacas, and rabbits is also called wool, as sometimes are the undercoats of the American bison and the musk ox). In addition to textiles, animal fiber has other uses. Horsehair is commonly used for brushes and other applications. Spider silk is used to treat wounds and to assist in mammalian neuronal regeneration by acting as a biocompatible artificial nerve conduit, and has often been used as a thread in optical instruments.

Feathers are best known for their use in consumer products as filling for sleeping bags, bedding and mattresses, and winter coats because of their excellent capacity for trapping heat. But they are actually extremely important in industry, where the feather waste produced by the poultry industry—which is slow to decompose—is used to culture microbes and produce enzymes.

Sinew, the tough fibrous tissue that connects muscle to bone, has a natural ability to withstand tension and so was an important animal product in the preindustrial era, when strong cordage was needed. Sinew provided the most important fiber for tool building and other construction purposes in harsh environments like those of the circumpolar peoples, where the local ecosystem provided no other natural fibers suitable for human use.

Catgut, similarly, has long been used not only to string musical instruments and tennis racquets but as surgical sutures. Despite the name, catgut is a tough, flexible fibrous cord manufactured from the intestines of sheep, goats, hogs, horses, or mules; the word is probably a contraction of “cattlegut.”

Animal hide and skin provide leather (especially from cattle hide), which is processed through means that raise environmental concerns even among people who have no ethical [Page 19]objection to the use of animal products or the raising of animals for food. The chemicals used in the tanning process and the hydrogen sulfide and ammonia used in the dehairing and deliming processes can result in considerable soil, air, and water pollution, with the wastewater of a tannery containing extremely high levels of chromium, sulfides, and biological waste, as well as the pesticides used to prevent insect infestations while transporting the untreated hides before tanning. The chromium levels in particular are considered a danger because of the accumulation resulting from the volume of production done at most leather treatment sites.

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