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PETA Asia’s Investigator Uncovers China’s Barbaric Badger-Hair Industry
I cannot reveal my name as I am in danger of persecution. When I agreed to investigate China’s badger-hair industry for PETA Asia, I was sure I’d see some disturbing things. I knew that cruelty is rampant whenever living beings are treated as if their body parts were there for the taking, but nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed.
I stood there, aware that if I flinched or tried to interfere, I would blow my cover, risking my personal safety and my chances of helping animals. In front of me, a worker pulled a terrified badger partially out of a cage then grabbed a thick, wooden chair leg and used it to bash him in the head over and over again. My heart was pounding and I wanted to cry out, but I would have been exposed – and then no one would ever have seen the footage that I was secretly recording.
So I stood there and silently kept watching as the worker picked up the wire cage that held the cowering animal and shook it until he fell to the floor, limp and weakened from the beatings. Then he took a knife, slit the badger’s throat, and left him there to bleed to death. I can only imagine the agony that he was in.
Extreme Pain for a Paintbrush
Before this investigation, almost no one knew that badgers are tortured so their hair can be used in brushes for paint, makeup, and shaving. I certainly didn’t.
At the facilities that I visited, I saw row after row of cages, each barely any larger than the isolated badger living in it. With no opportunity to dig, forage for food, choose mates, or do anything else that matters to them, the badgers pace and spin in endless circles, trying to cope with their deprivation and despair. I saw many of them suffering from severe, untreated injuries – including one whose leg had been bitten off by another badger in a nearby cage.
I’ve learned that in nature, these extremely social animals construct elaborate underground burrow systems, called setts, with separate bedrooms and “maternity wards.” Some of them are centuries old and have been inhabited by the same badger clan for generations.
But even though badgers are a “protected species” in China, they are violently torn away from their families using snares and other cruel methods. It’s illegal, and badger-hair factories try to hide what they’re doing. When I asked how factories obtain badger hair, company representatives blatantly advised me to lie, saying, “Sometimes foreigners ask if the hair was from wild or captive animals – they have animal protection organizations there, don’t they? You can just tell them that most are captive badgers, but actually most come from the wild.”
Companies Bristle at Cruelty
The memory of that badger and so many others is hard to shake. But I take comfort in knowing that the video footage I captured has helped PETA and its affiliates persuade two dozen companies to cut ties with this bloody business, and more will surely do the same when they see what I saw. Procter & Gamble, the parent company of the high-end Art of Shaving brand, immediately banned badger hair after seeing PETA’s video and pledged to switch to synthetic brushes, saying that “we were very disturbed to learn of these terrible practices.” The New York Shaving Company quickly followed suit, saying, “This is absolutely terrible. This stands against our philosophy as a company.”
Penhaligon’s of London, which holds royal warrants to provide goods and services to Prince Charles and the Duke of Edinburgh, immediately stopped production of all badger-hair items and pulled its existing stock off the shelves. Sherwin-Williams, Beau Brummell, Olivina Men, Caswell-Massey, Floris London, and many other companies have also banned badger hair after hearing from PETA.
PETA will keep pushing until all companies switch to humane synthetic brushes and cruel badger farms like the ones I visited are only a bad memory.
Visit PETA.org/Badger to urge Dick Blick Art Materials and beauty retailer Morphe to drop badger-hair brushes immediately in favor of synthetic ones.
