Ostrich Plumes (1894)

AUTHOR: Lovell, Mary Frances

KEYWORDS: animal welfare, dress reform

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

Lovell promotes animal welfare and dress reform, condemning the wearing of Ostrich feathers and feathered headgear in general. While she concedes that it is possible to obtain ostrich feathers without cruelty, she insists that some forms of harvesting do inflict suffering – these need to be opposed. Quoting a report from the London Truth, she provides a brief description of the cruelty involved:

The first year a bird is plucked he can be easily caught and thrown by one man. The feathers are then wrenched, bleeding, from his tortured body, after which the marabout and down are torn off. After one experience the birds can only be caught with the utmost difficulty, and it takes six or eight men to throw an old bird. 'It is very hard work plucking,' we are told, 'the feathers are bedded so tight in the flesh.' I asked if it would not do as well to clip off the feathers close, and was told that dealers will only buy those with the perfect quill. All the undressed feathers offered for sale on the farm had blood on the quills, and we were told that when the annual plucking takes place the shrieks of the birds can be heard to a great distance in the still desert air (14).